Flyin'
by Supa Supa Bad Truly Mad Moves
Summary: PART 5: Max and her newly expanded flock find themselves in hiding and on the lam once again. They form fresh new bonds with one another, make discoveries, and finally get a chance to combat the "utopian" future that they've been hearing so much about...
1. Chapter 1

**FLYIN'**

**Part 5 of SSBTMM's Maximum Ride FanFic**

**Disclaimer:** The Maximum Ride universe = not mine. There you go.

**Okay, everybody. This is Part 5, so if you're new, you will probably want to start at the beginning. If you're going to do that, if you would be so kind as to let me know that you're starting my story. Post a review for the very first chapter, for example. Just so I know that somebody's out there. **

**I began the story before **_**Fang**_** was released, and the story is continuing as such, just FYI for the new people.**

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**Chapter 1**

Hello. My name is Angel. I suppose you know that. You probably know a few other things… like that I'm blond, with white wings, that I have various telepathic powers.

Now, here are a few things you might not know. I'm eleven years old. I'm mildly clairvoyant. And I was recently tortured by a devilish mutant created by the wonderful Miss Marian Janssen.

I looked around at the flock. We'd all been dumped out into a desert… all twelve of us. How long have there been a dozen flock members, you ask? Okay, recap time.

Well, there's me. Gazzy, Iggy, Nudge, Fang, and Max. The old six. None of us in good shape.

Janssen had sent Max on her way. Max had rescued me, but to make sure we wouldn't return, she'd had Max's right arm severed at the elbow. Max stared at the bandaged stump numbly, not really thinking about anything.

Fang stroked her face tenderly, tightly holding her remaining hand, gazing at their wedding rings. Fang's was a simple gold band, Max's adorned with a pure black onyx gemstone. They loved each other so much…

Iggy kissed Nudge's hair. They were a cute couple too. They had been married during my brief departure from the flock, and I hadn't been there… but I couldn't blame them. I had screwed up pretty bad.

Then there was Gazzy… God, my poor brother. He just couldn't cope. I walked over to comfort him, but he moved away. He wanted to be isolated. I couldn't get near him.

The seventh flock member, regretfully, was not Total. Total is dead. Killed by my negligence, my certainty that I could handle anything. That's not a mistake I'm ever, ever going to make again.

In addition to the original six, there was Airy—Max and Fang's three-year-old daughter. A curly-haired little sweetheart, the spitting image of Max but with very Fangish eyes, her wings black but with brown speckles along the edges, Airy is easily the most adorable thing in the world. Snuggled up with her mommy and daddy, she seemed not to mind our predicament, as long as everyone was together.

Our eighth was a recent addition, having joined the flock about a month and a half ago. Get ready to be revolted—it was Max II. She'd been wandering Europe for three years, living as a scavenger, until she had seen Fang's special projection, a holographic image of his proposal to Max, spread out for the entire world to see. That's when she'd started actively looking for us, and finally found us in the secret base in Italy where we'd been living.

I hadn't approved of the new addition, and that was more or less why I got kicked out. But when I was captured by the Survivors, the evil organization that had swallowed up all of the others, they came back for me… clone-Max and I were pretty much cool now, but still… I don't know.

Then there was the… _other_ flock. My flock had picked them up in Ireland, where a highly secretive corner of the Coalition to Stop the Madness had massed an army.

This other flock was raised by a separate Itex lab—they had been educated and trained for the sole purpose of saving the world.

Their leader was Imogen. Red-blond hair, aqua eyes… her wings were a bat's, fuzzy and ribbed, sixteen feet across and nearly as broad as she was tall. In her thoughts, I read hopelessness. For all her training, she'd never actually been in any kind of situation in all of her sixteen years—two years younger than Max, physically stronger, more educated, but ultimately not nearly as wise.

Imogen also had eyes for Max II. For the short period of time that Max II had lived with us in the base, I'd learned from her inner thoughts that she was boy-crazy. Not for anyone in particular, just obsessed with finding a boyfriend, any boyfriend. Then, in Ireland, she and Imogen had evidently enjoyed a very brief girl-on-girl fling. It hadn't worked out, and now Max II was back to her irritating man-hunting thought pattern.

Imogen's second-in-command was named Sean. His hair was shaggy and black, and dyed with silver and purple stripes. His wings were blue, with white streaks and black speckles, like a jay. His attire was heavy and dark, and I swear, his wingspan was identical to Fang's if it was a sixteenth of an inch.

Sean was fiercely protective of Imogen—they'd been raised together, and he saw her as a sister. He tolerated nothing happening to her. Glancing at a few memories, I saw that he and Fang had engaged in mortal combat more than once over insults to either Imogen or Max.

Now, they got along pretty well. They seemed to share a love of emo-ness and the supernatural, though they both denied it. A pretty cool pair, I think. And Sean seemed to be a really interesting guy and a loyal companion. And, maybe it's only because I've never previously noticed any boys, but I thought Sean was unbelievably hot.

Then there were Jacqueline and Falon. Identical twins with red hair and seagull wings, they were around the same age as Nudge but incredibly short for bird-kids, only five feet tall, though still very skinny. Imogen and Sean had evidently been raised under open skies in Ireland, but the twins were brought up in a manner not unlike my flock—in a science lab in London.

I didn't really care what they were thinking and where they came from. I despised them as soon as I first read their thoughts. They had seduced my brother, pressured him into sleeping with both of them. He had already been so messed up over the things that had been happening in his life… weakened and fearful… and what they did completely pushed him over the edge.

I sighed. So, twelve of us now… lost in a desert. We didn't even know what continent we were on. The black stone tower that the Survivors used as a base traveled rapidly around the world, and we had no idea where we'd been dumped off.

The sun started to go down, pleasantly lowering the temperature. We all knew it wouldn't last, that once the sun was completely down, the desert would be freezing. Max started passing around some of the high-calorie meals she kept in her backpack. She bared her teeth in frustration at having to divide the portions with only one hand.

Fang patted her shoulder, and she wordlessly handed it off to him.

"What do we do now?" Airy asked. It was the first thing that anyone had said for a long time.

Max ruffled her daughter's hair. "I don't know, baby," she said. "I think we should go to sleep. Tomorrow, we'll start flying and figure out where we are." She turned to me. "How are you feeling, Angel?"

I rubbed my arm, covered as it was in burn marks, knife marks, needle marks, and so on. "Swell, Max," I said.

"We're together, and that's the only thing that really and truly matters," Max said.

"Amen," Iggy muttered.

"We're all going to be okay," Max said quietly.


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, I'm posting ten chapters at once. Simply because, well, that's the way I roll. Review them individually, please… but if you know me, you know that, and you know that I will torment you 'til Ragnarok if you don't.**

**Chapter 2**

_You are reading Fang's blog. August 28, 2013._

_Hey, loyal followers. In one single moment your whole life can turn 'round… flock's out of our safe base (which, I suppose I can tell you now, was in Italy) and now back on the lam in some desert somewhere. Can't tell you where. No, not for security reasons. We can't tell you because we don't know._

_Have I ever put it on record how awesome Max is? Well, just in case I haven't: my wife is freaking awesome. We got Angel back, folks, despite the cost. What exactly said cost was, will remain secret. You all know how it goes._

_Anyway, Max led us across the sea and right into the teleporting tower of the Survivors—a bad guy organization that's been steadily swallowing up all the other bad guy organizations—and braved their entire force, just for Angel. Because Max is that kind of girl._

_Sorry, I meant woman. Keep forgetting that Max turned 18 last month… but of course, she was a woman a long time before that. Damn, in less than a month I'm going to be 18 also. Hard to grasp, isn't it? Life is short. A hell of a lot longer than most "people" of my upbringing, but still._

_In other news, we have a few interesting new flock members…_

"Fang, don't!" Nudge said.

I looked over my shoulder at her. "Sorry?" I said.

"Don't tell them that," Nudge said. "If you're not going to trust the public, _definitely_ don't tell them that the flock is… you know, bigger."

"Why?" I asked.

"Lemme see that," she said. I passed her my laptop—four years and it's still workable, still modern, and still very, very illegal. Definitely a prize possession.

"See," Nudge explained, whipping through some of my older posts, "obviously, until we went into hiding three years ago we were very much in the public eye. Thanks to your blog and our occasional mission outside the base, nobody's forgotten about us, but they haven't learned anything either. The general public can name the six original members of the flock, and are probably pretty aware of Airy… but at this point? They don't know that we found Max II. They don't know about Imogen's flock. And that's probably better! Because if any of _them_ are online, then these guys will be safe… and also, we'll have an advantage over any foe who doesn't realize that the flock has doubled."

I took it back from her. "Good thinking," I said. "No updates on the new-guys front, then."

Nudge never ceased to amaze me. Whether it was the day I realized she was an inch taller than me, or when she was only eleven and recounting the story of the first time she seduced Iggy… well, she's a great sister. Probably the smartest person in the flock. And there couldn't possibly be a better wife for Iggy.

Iggy was already asleep in the sand, his eyes covered by the crook of his elbow. Nudge sat down next to him and just watched him sleep, showing no signs at all of being tired herself.

I submitted my blog posting—which, as I did so, I realized it was painfully cryptic and would probably get a million or two people unnecessarily worried about me—and glided over a dune, where I'd seen Max disappear to.

"Hey, babe," I said.

"Hey," she said quietly.

I saw some blood drip onto the sand, and realized that she'd removed the bandage from the stump of her arm, and didn't seem to have any intention to put on a new one.

"What are you doing?" I demanded. "Are you out of your freaking mind? Replace your goddamn bandage!"

"No," she said. "If I let it heal, then all the nerves and stuff will get closed off, and then… well, then there'll be no place to attach my cyborg arm."

I stared at her. The words sounded like she had to be joking, but her face, her tone… she meant it. "Cyborg arm?" I repeated.

"I can't work with one arm, Fang," she said. "I… I can't be a cripple. I can't be a cripple and still be Max."

"That's ridiculous," I said. "You're not crippled. I saw this guy on TV once. A professional wrestler—not the fake, iron-cage kind, but the real, yoga-mat kind—top of his game, tremendous athlete, and he's got no arms or legs. If he can pin a guy down with no limbs, then I think _you_ can still be Max even if you're a little wobbly." I held her remaining hand, fingering our wedding ring. "I'm just glad you didn't lose the ring," I whispered.

"Yeah… yeah, I'm glad for that too."

"Because the ring, that's… that's where I put my soul."

"This wrestler guy," Max said. "Does he have a little bit of not-human in him? Has he been a fugitive his entire life? Is he being pursued by a lunatic android, a 111-year-old CEO, and a self-proclaimed 'unholy assassin'? 'Cause unless he is, I don't think he can really be compared to me."

I shrugged. "Just an example. But why the hell would you want to be a cyborg?"

She held up her right arm. It ended just beyond the elbow, and was barely scabbed over, still oozing slightly. "Fang, sweetheart, I don't know if you remember, but there used to be, like, an arm here. And I was kind of fond of it, man! I can't get it back, so I'll settle for a real good substitute."

She pressed her left hand against my heart. "Without that hand, there's just… things just aren't right. With the hand I've got, I can't really… touch you the way I used to. You know, like when I'd wiggle my fingers and…" She tried it. Her index finger moved independently, but she couldn't get her other three fingers to separate. "See? I can't even do it with my left hand." Her eyes brightened. "I could get _two_ cyborg arms and become ambidextrous."

I stared. "Once again: you're out of your freaking mind. Just put on a bandage, okay? If you're dead-set on a new arm, we'll chop you up again to re-open all the nerves, you… you magnificent psychopath. Just… come on, you'll get sand in there and it'll get infected." I started re-bandaging her. "Don't mutilate yourself, all right? I can't stand it."

She raised an eyebrow. "That's gonna be problematic, dude. Come on, when we get into a fight—and make no mistake, we do—I'm gonna get mutilated. How are you gonna deal?"

"I'll deal with that when it happens," I said. "And I'll deal with it by snapping the neck of whoever did it. But… no, I can't stand seeing _you_ tear _yourself_ apart. It's _this_ all over again." I rubbed her upper arm. Still visible from four years ago was the surgical scar that didn't entirely conceal the erratic cuts of the sharp-edged shell.

Max sighed disgustedly. "Fine, I'll let the damn stump heal. But I _will_ get a replacement for it… all right?" She added that last part meekly. My God, why did she think she needed my permission? She sure as shooting never needed it before…

"You don't _need_ a replacement arm to 'be Max'," I said. "You will _always_ be Max. Until the end of time."

"Your Max?" she muttered. Tenderly. She wanted a yes.

"My Max, babe." I kissed her face, then kissed the newly wrapped bandage.

She kissed me back, then darted her tongue in and out of the six random gaps where I had recently lost some teeth. "Kind of sexy," she said.

"Whatever works for you, Max."

"Okay," Max said breathlessly. "Let's… let's get some sleep. We'll start mapping our location tomorrow… as early as we can."

I nodded. "Of course."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Waking up the next morning, before the sun rose, Fang had both of his hands tightly gripping mine… okay, the dude's definitely putting too much emphasis on the one-arm thing. What's he trying to prove? That I can live my life exactly as it was before? 'Cause if that's the case… well, actually, maybe he's right.

What the fruit am I talking about, "maybe"? Fang is always right… and I'm almost always wrong…

"Ooh, hey, I know. Get out the computer. I want to _really_ see some colors!"

I turned my head. Iggy was wearing the electric circlet he'd received as a wedding gift. Wires going straight to his brain allowed images caught by the bright red lens on his forehead to be translated into perfect sight. A major downside was that it rendered him so excited and jittery that he couldn't move. I figured he'd get used to being able to see after a while, but apparently he wore it as little as possible, so that he _couldn't_ get used to it.

So, he was just sitting there, curled up tightly, while Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel held various things in front of his face.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, open up the Paint program, then just make the whole screen… let's go with red. OH, WOW!"

Nudge giggled. "I love it when you get so excited like this, sweetie."

"Oh, I know, I know," Iggy said. "Let me see you again." She stepped in front of him. "OH MY GOD, you're so beautiful."

"Wanna see Angel again?"

"Yeah, sure… hello, pretty little sister!"

"Hey, Iggy," Angel said, waving to him.

"And… where's Airy? There's Airy!"

"Am I pretty, Uncle Iggy?" Airy asked sweetly.

"Yes, you are, sweetheart."

"Hey, Max is up," Angel reported.

"Hey!" Iggy said happily. "Come here, you guys."

Fang and I got up and stood in front of Iggy, holding hands and smiling at each other.

"Hey, Fang, nice to see your face, bro," Iggy said. "Max… wow, Max is pretty too. We're all pretty, aren't we?"

"Yeah," I said. "But Nudge is the prettiest."

"Oh, God, yes," Iggy sighed. "Who's, um… who's standing behind me? I can hardly hear when I can see… is that Sean?"

"Good call, mate," Sean said.

"What's everybody standing behind me for? I wanna see this fantastic Irish flock. And where's… hey, Tooey, come here and stand next to Max."

Max II hesitated for a moment. "I'm… I'm sorry, were you talking to me?"

"Of course."

"…Tooey?"

"Oh, right," Iggy said. "Sorry, I know you prefer the name you've got, but 'Max II' is a bit… I don't know… consonant intensive? Now, come here. I wanna see you with Max."

She started walking up to me. "Tooey," she muttered thoughtfully.

"Yeah, don't call her Tooey, Ig," I said.

"No, no, it's fine," Max insisted. "I mean, you know, not having my own name, it was just confusing for everybody, and I… Tooey! Yeah! It makes sense."

I looked her over. "I don't like it, buddy," I said. "I think you'll always be 'Max' to me."

"Hey, you can call me whatever you want. You're 'original Max', after all. But… yeah, let's make it easier on everybody… Tooey! Wow, I feel like… like an individual now, it's awesome."

"I like it," Imogen offered.

I turned to her. She was on her back—generally an uncomfortable position for the winged mutants I was familiar with—with her broad wings wrapped around herself, concealing her body. She had briefly lifted a bit off of her face to call out, then covered herself up again.

"You okay, Immy?" I said.

"Fine," came her muffled voice from within the folds. "Just… I dunno. Jet lag, maybe?"

Iggy clapped his hands. "Come on, come on," he said. "Let's have Max and Max strike a pose. Now do a little dance… now kiss."

I gave Iggy the finger.

"Oh, that's not necessary," he said.

Jacqueline and Falon walked into Iggy's line of sight, laughing. "Oi, Ig," Jacqueline said. "If you've got a twin fing, we 'appen to be very good at dat."

She was nearly cut off as Gazzy ran up and tackled both of them, pinning them down, grimacing with abrupt rage, barely able to breathe.

"He's… married, you damned slutty bitches…" he hissed.

The twins broke free and immediately had Gazzy facedown in the sand. "Well, if you're no' awful grumpy for a boy 'oo jus' los' 'is virgini'y," Jacqueline sneered. She stomped on the back of Gazzy's head.

"Whoa, HEY!" Fang roared.

Imogen stood up and marched powerfully to the twins. "I've got this," she assured me. "Fals, Jax, a word."

"'Ow about, bugger off? Tha's two words," Jacqueline sneered.

"Ye two gotta pay for what ye did, girls," Imogen said.

"We've done nuffing wrong, Imogen. Get off our backs."

Imogen scoffed. "That's wrong on so many levels, Jax. Gazzy, are ye okay?"

Gazzy stood up. "Fine, fine…" He glared coldly at the twins. "I don't need you to fight my battles for me, Imogen. I've… completely got this."

Jacqueline laughed coldly. "God, this is the saddes' fing I've ever seen. You go' sex from us and now you wan' revenge? 'Ow much gayer can you be?"

She stepped to the side. Falon followed her, almost as if drawn by a magnet. She looked at Gazzy and muttered, "I'm… I'm so very sorry…"

Gazzy stared. Finally, Falon lamely turned around and walked off.

Iggy reached up and tapped Gazzy's back. "You okay, dude?"

Gazzy shrugged. "Hey, lots of people have sex with people they don't trust. I can deal."

Iggy sighed. "That really sucks."

"Nah, it's fine. Wanna see some more colors?"

"Sure, dude."

I looked around. The sun was coming up, but… nobody really seemed to be in the right shape for scouting. A foul mood hung over us…

"Mommy?" Airy whispered.

"Yeah?"

"I wanna fly, Mommy."

"So fly, sweetheart."

"Is it safe?"

Surprised by her concern and insight, I shrugged. "I think so, baby. Will you tell me if you see anything? You know, anything besides just desert."

"Okay. I love to fly. And I love you, Mommy."

I smiled as she took to the air. She certainly did love to fly… and she was so good at it!

"Hey, um… Tooey?" Imogen said.

Max chuckled. "Sup?"

"I… I just want to ask ye, are ye sure that we can't… you know, be together? I really, really like ye."

I watched them out of the corner of my eye. Max was slumping. "God, Imogen, I like you too, but… yes, I'm sure. I love you, never forget that, but… there's really nothing I can do."

Imogen scowled. "So, ye're tellin' me, all yer confessions about how ye felt, and—and—and the kiss! That wasn't real?"

"My _feelings_ for you were very real, Imogen, trust me," Max said. "More real than anything in my life. But I can't be with you, because I… because I like boys. For a second, I thought maybe I could go either way, but I was mistaken. Okay? I love you, and I swear I'll help you move on… okay?"

Imogen leaned back pensively. "I think I could go either way," she said thoughtfully.

Max grinned. "That's cool. Maybe you and I can go fly over an LGBT parade sometime."

"I thought nobody was supposed to know that we exist."

"I was kidding, jeez…"

Imogen lay back down in the sand. She started to shroud herself with her wings, but I stuck my hand in.

"Hey, Immy, what's really eating at you?" I asked.

"It's nothin', Max."

"Come on. Your relationship with Max can still be really great…"

"What, friends? I've got plenty of friends. If I'm not dating anybody, I'm not accomplishing anything."

"Oh, get up," I said. "Come on, Imogen, stand up. Listen… you want to save the world?"

"Yeah," she said. "I want to save the world the way you do."

"Okay, whatever. Tell you what, you want to learn how to be in a _real_ fight? You want to learn how to live my kind of life? I'll teach you. I'll gladly teach you… whether you want me to or not! As of right now, Immy, you're my protégé."

"Yer what?" Imogen said. "Since when do ye keep a protégé?"

"Since now."

"Since when do you know the word 'protégé'?" Iggy called.

I threw an iPod at him. With the reduced senses brought on by the circlet, he couldn't hope to dodge.

"Ouch," he said calmly.

"Anyway… Immy," I said. "You're a great kid. I'm gonna teach you how we've survived all these years. You'll be right here next to us kicking ass in no time."

"Okay," she said, shrugging. "One question: I thought ye were gonna start calling me by me proper name. When did 'Immy' come back?"

I laughed. "Buddy? You've got a _lot_ to learn about this flock."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

I pondered the two-flock thing. Eight on my side, four on Imogen's side. Of course, we're all on the same _side_, technically.

Fang and Sean were hanging. They'd been so much at each other's throats! It was hard to believe they could even speak to each other, never mind swap stories the way they were. But Sean liked me now and Fang liked Imogen now, so I guess the two dudes had no reason to continue to hate each other.

We _all_ liked Imogen. And we liked Sean, too, but… God, those twins. How could we keep reins on them?

"Hey, Max," Nudge said. "I think I've found something."

"What?" I said blankly.

"Over here," Nudge said. "I… I'm feeling like somewhere around this dune, there's been some… activity… thoughts… stuff like that."

"This stuff you're getting from that psychometric voodoo you used to have?" I asked.

"I've still got it, Max. I know when there have been people around… and what they've been doing."

"So, around the dune, then?" I said dubiously.

Nudge shook her head. "Beneath," she said simply.

I stared at the dune. "You want us to dig through the sand, Nudge-ster?"

"I can do it myself," Nudge said.

Nudge lifted her hand. Abruptly, wind came whistling from behind us. I instinctively covered myself and shut my eyes, but no sand was blowing on the wind. Instead, it simply began to piece-by-piece blow away the dune, until we were looking at a small pyramidal structure with a door set in its side.

"What could this be?" Nudge wondered. "I don't know who could have used this…"

"I have a better question," I said. "Exactly how long have you been controlling the elements, baby?"

"Like… just now," Nudge said. "Crap like that seems to happen to us. You know, new abilities."

"Still…" I muttered. "That's a pretty big one. Could you make it rain?"

Nudge looked at the sky. "Not here," she said.

"Not… here," I repeated slowly. "Swell. Anyway, we've got a door."

"Hey, if it gets us out of the heat of the sun," Iggy muttered.

"Have a lockpick on you, dude?" Fang asked.

"No… but I could fashion one," Iggy said. "Give me a couple minutes."

"Don't bother," I said, examining the door. "No locks, no handle, no obvious way to open the thing from the outside."

"Touch it," Angel said.

"What?"

"I got a hunch," Angel said.

"A hunch?" I repeated.

"Yeah, a hunch. Has that ever steered us wrong?"

"Dude…"

"Okay, lemme rephrase that. Have my hunches ever gotten us killed?"

"Comforting, Angel."

"Just touch the damn door, would you?" Angel said irritably.

I pressed my hand against the door. Immediately, a powerful feminine voice spoke out.

"HOLD STILL FOR DNA IDENTIFICATION."

"Don't move…" Angel said excitedly.

"DNA MATCH: MAXIMUM RIDE. ACCESS GRANTED."

"Is that Sigourney Weaver?" Gazzy wondered.

"Big picture, bro," Fang said gently.

The doors opened wide, leading to a wide, dusty corridor that went deep underground. The dozen of us stood in silence for a moment.

"Well…" I muttered. "Been a while since anything like _this_ happened."

"It's happened before?" Sean asked.

"Oh, various things… the credit card in my name, TVs and computers acting funky when I pass by, Ouija boards talking to me. Crap like that. But it's been years…"

"Save the world, Max," Fang muttered.

I thought of the implications of that quote. How long had it been…? Sure, Jeb was still lurking around, asking me questions. The Voice had been passing on its usual _que sera sera_ crap right up until it left me. But other than those two, things had been going… well, not _normal_, but it seemed so much like things were in control, that I was making my own decisions about the direction of my life. The School, Anne Walker and her prep school, Europe, D.C., Antarctica, Hawaii… all those places and the trials they'd put me through seemed a distant memory. I felt like, maybe, ever since all that was over, I was doing my own thing, being who I wanted to be.

Then, this door accepting me, and addressing me by name. Dear God, was I spinning back into…

…into…

…into…

…into _that_?

Was I returning to that God-awful life where nothing was in my control, where I was treated as a mutated tool for everybody to use and nobody stopped to consider that maybe I was a person with hopes and dreams and that I was only a child and that I didn't want to be a weapon and that I… AAAAAAAH!

The entire flock took an alarmed step back and stared at me.

"Did I say that out loud?" I muttered.

"What, 'aaaaah'? Yeah, you pretty much did," Max II said.

I looked into the corridor. "I don't wanna go in there," I said shakily.

Fang put a hand on my shoulder. "Can we afford to find out what happens if we _don't_ go in there?"

I inhaled, then took a step in.

Needless to say, everybody followed me.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

We emerged silently into an enormous, brightly-lit room. The floors were covered in a layer of lightly disturbed dust, and a whole lot of nothingness.

In the back of the room, a woman was gently caressing a gigantic sphere.

"Hi, Max," she said quietly. "I was told you'd be showing up around now… yep, four years ago they told me that you'd be coming in once again…"

I recoiled as the woman turned around.

"No way," Nudge muttered.

"Ohhhhhh God," Angel wailed.

I regained my composure. "Um, hello… ragged, wild-eyed version of Anne Walker."

Anne was not in good shape. Her eyes were bloodshot and red, with dark, dark shapes beneath them. Her hair looked like it hadn't been combed in a millennium, though from its erratic length one could infer that she'd recently hacked at it to shorten it.

She chuckled. "Ah, good to see another human being… or whatever. I haven't seen anybody in so very, very long. It gets so lonely here… no one, nothing, nothingness, emptiness, only me…"

Fang reached into his belt loops for his thin knife and Gazzy-made gun. I held his hand back. "She's not hurting anybody," I whispered.

"I knew you were fated to come here," she said. "You know, I'm so _utterly_ fascinated by fate, and destiny, and where you fit into… hey! Is that your child?" She eyed Airy, fascinated. I expected Airy to take a step back, but she merely looked confused. Of course… this is the little girl who throws things at Jewel. A crazy lady isn't gonna bother her.

"Um, yes," I said. "Mine and Fang's daughter."

"Fang?" Anne said, crinkling up her face.

"I think you knew him as Fnick," Iggy offered.

"No, no, I know who Fang is," Anne clarified. "Just… surprised, that Max would mate with Fang, of all people… awfully convenient, don't you think? You know, born two months after you, always kept near you… maybe that's how it was supposed to go! Set to be mates from birth…"

Fang squeezed my shoulder. "Hey, that works for me, crazy lady," he said.

"Fascinating," Anne slurred. "So, do the two of you still mate?"

"Okay," Fang said. "Of the many, many ugly terms used to describe a beautiful thing, I'm gonna go with 'mating' as the least attractive."

"It was only a question," Anne said in a wispy voice.

"Well, since you ask, we're married," I said, flashing my ring.

"Ah. So, no," Anne said. She roared with maniacal laughter, then abruptly paused. "Marriage joke," she said. "Don't you ever tell marriage jokes?" She eyed Airy again. "A second generation. I never dreamed they would be right about a second generation…"

I stepped forward. "How have you been passing the time, Anne?" I asked.

"Glad you asked," Anne said. "For four years, I've been working on this." She grandly presented the giant sphere, eight feet tall and lumpy. "It's a scale model of the planet."

"Scale model of…?" I muttered. "Where I come from, we call that a globe, Anne."

"Oh, this is so much more than a globe," Anne said. She turned it, so I could plainly see Africa, Europe, and Asia. "Look closely with your eagle eyes," she said. "You'll appreciate it."

I squinted. "Cities," I muttered. "Structures. God, this is incredible art."

"You don't know the half of it," Anne said dreamily. "Sometime, I'll have to turn off the lights and show you how they smolder…"

"And these cities are all over," I said. "Look at the texture… no wonder it took you four years."

"And I'm not nearly done," Anne said. She turned it. "I've still only put very few details here in the Western Hemisphere."

I saw North and South America… but it didn't really look very much like North and South America. In all directions, the size was greatly reduced, the shape nearly incomprehensible.

I frowned. "Why did you make the Americas so narrow?"

"This isn't the world _now_," Anne explained. "It's the world in the future… I don't know when. But it's definitely the future, because if it was the present, I'd be much too dead to explain it to you… hahaha…"

"Wha… why?" I muttered.

Anne pointed to a bit of ocean on the map. "Because we're right here. When the ocean swallows this place up, it'll take me and my home with it."

My brow furrowed as I thought about that. She was pointing to a place that would be swallowed up by the ocean?

"Anne, how long have you lived in this… new home?" I asked.

"Oh, plenty long, long enough. Ever since you escaped here, with Angel and Ari and your dog… we were shut down, so very, very shut down, but I couldn't leave, because I had to wait for you, for destiny fulfilled… fate in action…"

I barely registered the latter half of her speech. "Since… I escaped… here?" I repeated.

Nudge covered her mouth. "No! No! No, no, no, no, no…"

"Here?" Fang breathed.

"That's what I'm telling you." Anne pressed a button on her table. One of the walls went transparent, and I saw it… dusty and dark, but still, I knew the place.

I fell to my knees. "God damn," I whispered.

"What?" Imogen demanded. "What's wrong?"

"So much is wrong, Immy," I said. "Here's the first thing I'm going to teach you. This… is where I grew up. Imogen, welcome to the School."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

We left Anne in her little globe room. We wandered the halls of the School. We'd sworn we'd never return, but we delved deep into the hallways because we knew… we could gain more here than out in the desert. Practicality…

"Can't believe it's this place…"

Oddly enough, that was Fang, running his hands along the walls.

"I dunno," Gazzy said. "The big thing about the School was the bleach smell, and the shininess… it doesn't have quite the same oomph when it's, you know, not clean."

"And it needs oomph?" Nudge said. "It's still the School."

We all found a place to sit… a desperately-needed place to sit. An old dusty table in an old dusty room… didn't Anne clean this place? Shit.

Fang slipped his laptop out of his pack. "Here, Nudge," he said. "Find the CSM."

"Yeah," I agreed. "We need to contact them, let them know we'll be coming back."

"All right," Nudge muttered.

Nudge took it and started tapping the keys… well, mostly just rubbing the surface.

"You got special hands, Nudge," I said.

She chuckled. "Thanks, Max."

"Come on… think about it. All of your extra mutations are centered in your hands. Magnetic, psychometric, computer-hackin', and now weather-controllin' hands. Magic hands."

Nudge laughed. "Hey, you don't need to tell me. I hear enough about my magic hands from my dear husband here. How did you put it on our honeymoon, Ig? That my HJ is 'preternatural'?"

"Okay, did I really need to know that?" I asked.

"Hey, I submit that the _world_ needs to hear that," Iggy supplied.

"Yeah, yeah," I said. "Did you find the CSM?"

"Actually, I was looking up the word 'honeymoon'," Nudge said.

"What?"

"Well, think about it. It's a weird term, 'honeymoon'. And when you think about what it describes… what could its origin possibly be?"

"Nudge, we're looking for the CSM," Fang said.

"Okay, okay," Nudge said, tapping in a new code. "Don't let me forget, though, about the honeymoon thing. That's gonna drive me crazy."

Nudge concentrated for a few moments, then turned the laptop to face me. "Here's the website," she said. "Coalition to Stop the Madness. Thing is, it's supposed to be an environmentalist awareness group. Nobody knows they've got an army to take down the villains who are doing God-knows-what."

"Well, you can find stuff about the army, can't you?" I said anxiously.

"Hey, trust the magic hands, fearless leader," Nudge said. "If information about the CSM army was _ever_ on the Internet, I'd find it."

"How could it have never gotten to the Internet?" Iggy wondered.

Nudge closed the window of the CSM website. "I guess they knew that I'm not the only hacker around," she said solemnly.

Fang looked around. "Well, we've gotta get out of here as soon as possible," Fang said. "We could just fly back to Ireland, right?"

"Sure, babe, but not right now," I said. "We need to recuperate."

Fang stood up angrily and pounded the wall. "I don't want to recuperate _here_," he snarled.

"Hey, you're not alone in that," I murmured. "But Fang, it's… it's only practical. We can't rest out in the hot desert."

"Hey, the desert is preferable to this," Fang said coldly. "I'd rather sleep in a lake of magma than… I mean, COME ON! Do you realize, right now, we're in the same room where our crates were?"

I looked around wildly. "What? How can you tell?"

"Come on. Like you're ever going to forget a single detail of our lives there? I mean, here?" Fang tapped the spot on the wall that he had just pounded. "My crate was _right here_."

Sean frowned. "What… what do ye mean, mate, when ye say your 'crate' was here?"

Fang glared at Sean. "Oh, wow, you really know _nothing_, huh… _mate_."

"Crates," Falon whispered. "Ah, yeah. Jax, you remember the crates?"

"Crates… needles… electroshocks…" Jax mused. "Yeah, all dat good stuff."

Gazzy considered the twins. "Hmph," he said.

Jax looked at him expectantly. "Wha'?"

He shrugged. "Nothin', just… I remember it too."

Falon's eyes widened. "Hey, yeah… yeah! You know jus' wha' we're talkin' abou', don' you?"

Fang slid his laptop out from under Nudge's fingers and started typing.

"What are you doing, babe?" I asked.

"Blogging," he said. "So much that I can't leave unsaid… and it's this _place_…"

"Yeah," I muttered. "This place… yeah, you said that already."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

I was five years old, and they removed me from my crate to put me in a room so round and white and brightly lit that it could drive you mad.

"Our very first test with this subject," a male voice said. "The black-winged male… Alton."

"What?" I demanded. "I'm Fang!"

The man chuckled. "Of course you are. Pain tolerance experiment, to be executed immediately."

The agony coursed through me. It began in my brain, and extended through every inch of my barely more than a toddler's body.

It increased dramatically over the course of several minutes. When it began, I was sure it would kill me. By the time it was over, I demanded of God why it hadn't.

"Magnificent," the man said. That was it before I blacked out.

Once I was conscious again, they returned to the pain tolerance experiment. On it went for several minutes, though never as intense as that first wave…

Finally, they returned me to my crate. Ah, hello, sweet crate! I hated that damned crate, but it was better than the maddening round room…

And of course, when I was in the crate I could talk to Maximum. Yeah, that was the best…

But when they put me in there, and I turned to the crate next to mine… she wasn't there.

Maximum had disappeared.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

I woke in a cold sweat.

Max looked over me, from where we had set up our double-wide sleeping bag in a tiny room at the School. She was to my left, and was rubbing my neck with her half-an-arm.

"Wow, Fang," she muttered. "I have _never_ seen that before. You've been heaving and sweating for like five minutes…"

I shook my head vigorously. "Yeah, well… like I've been saying, it's this place…"

Max nodded. "Hey, believe me… I know about nightmares."

She curled her naked body around mine. "I'm… here to comfort you, babe," she said.

The door to our tiny room burst open. Angel stood there, in her _The Princess and the Frog_ pajamas, her arms crossed grumpily.

"Yo, Fang, do you mind?" she said. "We were having a conversation."

It took me a second to process that. "Um… can't you talk to Max when you're awake?"

"It couldn't wait," Angel retorted.

"Yeah, it _was_ kind of an emergency," Max said soothingly. "Sorry, Angel, Fang had a nightmare…"

Angel raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, swell… anyway, help an Angel out?"

"In my pack," Max said.

Angel rushed over to Max's backpack and began frantically searching through it.

"What's going on?" I wondered.

"Nothing," Max said.

Angel turned grimly to Max. "Actually… well, I've learned to never, ever keep secrets from the flock. None of us should, 'cause if we don't all trust each other, mutually, then… you know. Stuff happens, like… you know, like… well, anything I've done comes to mind. What I'm saying is… no secrets."

"Okay," Max said. "If you say so, Angel. See, Angel is…"

"Not while I'm still standing here!" Angel shrieked.

"So… tell him, but not in front of you?" Max checked.

"Yeah."

Angel edged out of the room, holding whatever she'd taken behind her back.

"What the hell was that?" I muttered.

"Pads," Max said. "Our… our Angel's a little lady now."

I blinked. "Oh, no…"

"Yep. We've got an entire _Are You There, God? It's Me, Angel_ situation right here in the flock." She sighed. "God, the flock is growing up… all of us. It's hard to accept. You know, and you're turning eighteen. My husband is almost eighteen. How wrong does that sound? And… and someday it's gonna be Airy raiding our room for pads."

I winced. "Ugh, I don't wanna think about that… Airy's just a baby."

Max gazed at me. "Babe… no she's not."

"I _want_ her to be a baby," I muttered. "I hardly got to see the baby Airy…"

"I know, I'm sorry," Max whispered. "So, Fang… what was your bad dream?"

I told her. She'd taken the pain tolerance tests as well, I knew it. When I got to the end, of returning to my crate to find myself completely alone, I found my lip trembling, my eyes fogging up.

"But Fang…" she said gently. "I _was_ there that day. We talked about flying… don't you remember?"

"Yeah," I said. "That's… that's what made the dream bad. Because the day was good. Every day of my life that I've been with you was good. But the dream turned it into a day without you…"

Max grimaced. "God, Fang, I don't know what to say. I'm so used to _you_ comforting _me_."

I didn't say anything. What _could_ I say? I'd never shown this kind of weakness before. Damn the School for doing this to me…

"Listen, Fang," she said. "Every day spent without… without us together? I regret every single one of those days. And I swear, there'll never be another day like it. We'll be together, _always_. It wasn't real… it'll never be real."

I recognized that last bit… I'd given that line to Max on the day Airy was born, consoling her about a nightmare in which Jewel had murdered the entire flock.

"You know something, Maximum Ride?" I said. "I love you."

"Forever," she replied.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Breakfast!" Anne said. She passed out a dozen enormous plates, filled with bird-kid-sized portions of bacon, sausage links, and toast and jam.

"Hope it's good," she said. "I don't entertain much." She wandered away, cackling wildly.

"Where'd she get the fresh food?" Angel muttered.

"Poisoned?" Fang suggested.

"Nah, she wouldn't," I said. "Too much trouble. And in any case, we need to eat. If anything weird happens, there should be enough time for all twelve of us to whip Anne's ass. Angel?"

"Uh, I picked up nothing," Angel said. "But we lived with her, like, forever, and I had no clue she was a traitor. And she's a total lunatic now, so…" She looked around nervously. "You know what? I'm just gonna go with 'eat it'."

Iggy took a single bite of his toast, then whipped out a small electric piano.

"Where'd you get that?" Gazzy asked.

"Lifted it off somebody at the CSM base," Iggy said. "You remember what I've been saying, about music in our blood, like birds?"

"Yeah," I said. "I always thought it was a freakin' stupid theory."

"_Et tu_, Max?" Iggy said innocently. "Okay, I've never touched this keyboard before… but I bet you that if I play every note on it exactly once, then I'll be able to play any song flawlessly. I bet I can do that."

"No way," Max II said. "You're on, dude."

"I bet my breakfast," Iggy said.

"Don't," Max II said. "You're a jerk when you're hungry."

"I'm not gonna _be_ hungry, Tooey. I'm telling you—music is part of us. We all dream about it, we all enjoy it. Am I right? Birds make music, it's instinctual."

"Birds also instinctually prepare their food by pre-digesting it and throwing it back up," I said dryly.

"Frankly, Max, that explains a lot. I'll play this just fine, and you'll all be begging me to—who's bleeding?" he said sharply.

"What?" Max II said.

"I smell blood. Bird-kid blood… but, like, mixed with something. What is that?"

Angel slouched lower in her seat.

_Didn't change your pad, did you?_ I thought at her.

"Was I supposed to?" she said aloud.

"Yeah," I said.

"Nobody told me that."

"Thought it'd be common sense," I said, shrugging.

"Okay," Angel muttered. "Be right back."

Angel stalked off, leaving most of those at the table a bit bewildered, as the first sentence of the exchange had been purely telepathic… ha-ha, I love messing with these guys sometimes.

"What the hell was that about?" Iggy asked.

"Oh, Angel's… having some problems," I said.

"What are you talking about? What's wrong with her?" Iggy said anxiously.

"She's hit puberty, you moron," Fang sneered.

Iggy raised an eyebrow. "Have _you_ hit puberty, dude? You've been sullen since we got here."

"Ya think?" Fang said. "Maybe it's _because_ we got here! The School is getting to me. Can't we leave?"

"Nobody else is freaking out, man," Iggy taunted.

"Stop it, Ig," I commanded. I stroked Fang's hair. "We'll clear out after we eat breakfast."

"What about Anne?" Nudge asked.

"I talked to her. She doesn't intend to leave. We'll leave her here."

"Yeah, that's the only way to go," Fang muttered.

Angel returned, appearing just as humiliated but less smelly. She shot me a dirty look as soon as I had that thought, and I shrugged.

"You okay?" Gazzy asked.

"I dunno," Angel said. She looked between me and Nudge. "I'm given to understand we have a bird-like menstrual cycle?"

"Well, I'm not up on bird menstruation," I said, "but it's rapid, yeah. Expect to wear those two days out of every eight."

"Angel, I have to tell you…" Fang began.

"I know, I know, seems like just yesterday you were changing my diapers," Angel said.

"And now you change your own diapers," Nudge said solemnly, but unable to hold back a snicker.

"Okay, I don't want to talk about this," Angel said. She paused. "It _is_ like a freakin' diaper, how could every girl in the world possibly be wearing these, and it's never a conversation piece?"

"Well…" Nudge began.

"Anybody so much as thinks the word 'tampon', I'm exploding that person's head," Angel snarled, sitting back down.

"Aye, I'm with ye on that," Imogen muttered.

"Okay, I think this isn't a dude-friendly dining room anymore," Gazzy said, standing up. "Who wants to go shoot at stuff?"

Max II pulled him back into his seat by the back of his shirt. "Stay put, dude," she said. "You might learn something."

"I find that a first-period story tells a lot about a girl," Nudge said to Angel. "Me, for instance… it was at our Colorado house, not long after I fake-turned-eleven, and, well, I was under the impression that my mutations were deteriorating around me and I would be dead within the hour."

"Yeah, when you were saying your goodbyes it took me a second to catch on," I added.

"Is _that_ what that was?" Iggy said. "Wow, that was so long ago…"

"I remember, I was eleven," I said. "I kind of knew what the dealio was… Jeb was more terrified that I was, I'd say, having to fill in the blanks for me…" I chuckled, then stopped. "Was I just being nostalgic about Jeb?" I said. "Shoot, you guys gotta stop me before I do that." I pounded the table. "IMOGEN! Tell us your story."

"Ach, nothin' to tell, really. Ye know, I was… educated. So I handled it on me own."

"Well," Max II said thoughtfully, "when I was hitting puberty, I was in a big tube and they just played me the subliminal encoded imagery telling me what that entailed. So all of your stories can suck it."

"I seem to recall mine came… well, I don' know, but for sure a long time before Jax's did," Falon said provocatively.

"Well, I go' _these_ firs'," Jax replied, waving her boobs around. "So I'd say we even out."

"I learned to walk firs'," Falon retorted.

"I learned to _fly_ firs'," Jax said triumphantly.

"I spoke in sen'ences _long_ before you did," Falon said. "And I could read before you, I learned maths before you…"

"Oh, drop all that petty stuff, Falon," Jax said with a wide smile. "We bofe know dat I'm irrevocably the more adul' one, because I fucked Gazzy firs'."

At this point, everyone's attention was breathlessly on the twins. Jax maintained her triumphant smirk, but Falon looked dead serious… and enraged.

"And dat gives you some sor' of leverage?" Falon said coldly.

"Uh, yeah."

"Izzat so?" Falon hissed. "Well, I've go' sour news for you, Jax. It doesn' ma'er if 'e did you firs', because 'e liked _me_… more."

Jax laughed. "Oh, you can' possibly know dat."

"You were dere wiv me, Jax. You 'eard 'im. You were normal. I was _fabulous_."

"Where do you ge' such garbage?" Jax cackled. "Once 'e was done wiv me, it was jus', 'Oh, now I 'ave to do the uver one?' You're old news, Fals. Old news."

Falon leaned in, her face hard as stone. "I was a tremendous lover," she said. "You'll never be anyfing but just a one-time shag."

"I bet I could do Gazzy again righ' now," Jax countered.

There were two loud popping sounds, and Jax clutched her ears in agony. Blood started pouring from between her fingers.

"Wha' 'appened?" Falon demanded.

"That would be me," Angel said. "Me, showing great restraint from what I wanted to do. If you value your lives, you should leave now and stop thinking about my brother."

Jax looked at Angel, then back to Falon. "Why didn' you pop 'er ears?"

"Because, _she_ was actually thinking about… just because!" Angel snapped. "But nevertheless, I think you should both leave… now."

Both of the twins left… way too rapidly to have been in control of their own limbs.

All eyes went to Gazzy, to see what he thought of this. There was no sign of any emotion in his face.

"You want us to get rid of them, Gaz?" I asked.

"No," he said. "We need them."

"Come on, you know I hate double standards. When a girl gets molested, nobody expects her to continue to hang out with the guys who did it. The opposite should apply as well."

Gazzy was silent for a moment. "Iggy, tell us about your little music project," he finally said.

"Uh… okay," Iggy said.

One by one, he played every key on the board. When he finished, there was silence for a moment.

"Wow," Nudge said. "Did… did everyone feel that?"

"Play something, mate," Sean said quietly.

Instantly, Iggy began playing. A powerful piece of score from some movie… holy crap. He must have known how to play before! But I've known him his whole life, he's never even touched a piano… how, then? How did he do this?

"Wow," I breathed when he finished. "How did you do that? I… I want to make music, too!"

Iggy passed the keyboard to me. "You can do it, Max. You've heard what note each key plays… you can play anything. 'Cause we're birds, baby."

I tapped a few random keys just to make sure I was comfortable… then I began playing. It was amazing… I didn't need to concentrate at all! It just flowed out of me…

"What… what is that you're playing?" Fang said quietly.

"My… my own composition that I wrote just now," I replied. "This is unbelievable…"

"Voice of the soul, innit?" Iggy said, leaning back.

A tear flowed from my eye.

"Max?" Fang said, surprised.

"I love this music," I whispered. "And I love all of you."

Airy hugged me. "Mommy?" she said.

"Yeah, baby?"

"I think it's time for us to go."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

**Okay, I figure this chapter begs a big question… and the answer is, I'm a dude. Why, then, the detailed girl talk? Well, I just saw it as the natural conversational course that the young women of the flock would take. Another question might be: how? Well, I read a lot of chick books, I hang around with gals and listen to what they say to each other—it's at the point where understanding women and who they are and what they want comes fairly easily to me. Unfortunately, it seems that no woman will ever, ever want **_**me**_** no matter what, but at least I get some writing material out of it.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Jewel's blade dug deeply into the wall. He looked around wildly, unsure of where Kellie's shrill giggles were coming from…

As he turned around, her roundhouse kick caught him under the chin. The marble blade swung with a loud crack, but Kellie dodged once more and bent back the fingers on his ruby-studded hand. Jewel's other relatively normal hand backed up into a fist. Kellie lifted her foot up almost over her head to deflect a punch that certainly would have killed her. Jewel kicked out, knocking Kellie backwards nearly twenty yards.

She rushed at him, and he prepared his continuously whirling blades to intercept her. Unexpectedly, she dove between his legs and kicked him in the back of the head. He whirled and drove both blades deeply into the solid-steel floors—she was miraculously gone once again.

On a hunch, Jewel jumped for the ceiling, attaching himself firmly with his spider-silk. Sure enough, Kellie was bracing herself in a corner of the ceiling, and ran rapidly at him once again.

The two of them fell off the ceiling and instantly got to their feet, crouched in a combat-ready position, and their palms gently touching.

Lao Hu walked slowly down the stairs, wearing an emerald sequined gown. "Er… Jewel, my love?" she called.

Jewel slowly withdrew his hand from Kellie's and stepped back, still in a ready combat stance. "Hey, Lao Hu," he said. "Have you seen what Kellie can do? For the first time in my life, I've got a real-live sparring partner."

Lao Hu nodded. "I noticed… she's practically your equal."

Kellie raised her eyebrows. "Practically, as in I'm better than him, or…?" she let it hang.

Lao Hu shrugged, smiling lightly. "I wouldn't want to face either of you, put it that way."

Kellie paused as the scene outside the window changed, just as it did every eight seconds. There was a loud clicking sound, and Kellie winced and clutched her head.

"This is my stop," she said. "Bye, Jewel! It was excellent fighting with you."

Kellie ran down the hallways.

"Farewell," Jewel said quietly. He turned to Lao Hu. "Magnificent, isn't she?"

"A pinnacle," Lao Hu agreed. "Love, what are your plans now?"

Jewel shrugged. "Couple of things. I want… you know, I want to get control of my life back. I want to stop being the Survivors' broom, and I want them… to _know_ that they can't cage me or control me, whilst they die. And these things take time."

Lao Hu caressed his face. "My darling, I only wonder… would that be in keeping with your vow? Miss Janssen is an experiment, after all—and maybe even Headmaster has some modifications. If you wish to keep your promise to yourself, you can't hurt her."

"I never break my word, you know that," Jewel said. "Certainly not my word to myself, heh heh. No, those two, I can't let anything bad happen to them. But I _will_ teach them what happens when you're dealing with me. They don't need to be harmed to… you know, _suffer_."

Jewel pressed his face against Lao Hu's, and she kissed his mandibles. "Love your gown," he whispered. Jewel departed to his room.

"They've got a lot in common," said a high-pitched voice behind Lao Hu.

Lao Hu sighed and didn't turn around. "What are you babbling about now, Shey?"

"Kellie and Jewel," came Lang's gravelly voice. "They have a lot in common… more so than Jewel and _you_, unless I miss my guess."

Lao Hu considered that. "What… what are you two saying?"

"We're saying, maybe your robo-boyfriend is cheating on you," Shey said simply.

Lao Hu scoffed. "Go try to mess with someone else's head, siblings Liu," she said. "I'm not even going to give you the dignity of looking at you."

"Come on, Lao Hu, we care for you," Lang said. "We're just looking at the possibilities."

"The possibility exists," Shey added, "however remote, that maybe Jewel has found somebody else kinky enough to _desire_ him."

Lao Hu cringed. "Listen, I know you think that I'm some kind of loose woman, or—"

Lang pressed on her shoulder before she could turn around. "That's not what we're saying at all. We know you're not a loose woman… Shey is a loose woman."

"Damn right," Shey said. "You? You're a freak."

"And maybe Jewel's found an even freakier freak," Lang said. "Think about it, Lao Hu! And one who he can't harm because of his own promise to himself. Did his promise mention humans? You're a normal human, that means he can hurt you."

"Enough!" Lao Hu snapped. "I don't _care_ if Kellie is interested in Jewel. He would _never_ do that to me." She shrugged Lang's hand off of her shoulder—but exclaimed when she found herself not batting away a hand, but a powerful claw. Lao Hu spun to face the two siblings, and immediately backed away in horror. Shey shrieked with warbling laughter, and Lang showed off a dagger-toothed grin.

"What… what have you two _done_ to yourselves?" Lao Hu demanded.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

We were well on our way. The plan was, go as much of the way as possible from Death Valley to Ireland on the wing—as little paper trail as we could manage would only protect us.

"Hey, Sean," Fang said. "You dye your wings?"

"Nope," Sean said. "Natural blue."

"Hm. Hard to believe, I've never seen that."

"We've all got different wings," Sean said. "Me hair, that I dye."

"Yeah, I figured."

"Ye could dye yer wings, though," Sean said. "I mean, ye're all basic black."

"I like basic black," Fang countered.

"Here's somethin': I'm thinkin' of growin' a beard."

"Oh, awful idea, dude. Terrible."

"Bah, ye're not the boss of me."

"Hey, Fang?" I said.

He turned in the air. "Yeah, Max?"

"A word."

We took off, to waaaaaay up above everybody else.

"While it's thrilling that you're talking fashion with a guy you once tried to strangle," I began, "I… I need some support, Fang."

"You have my support," he said. "Forever, babe."

"I know, but… it used to be that we couldn't stand to be… not touching each other. Now we're flying and… and you're talking to somebody else. Doesn't matter who it is, but it's not me, and… Is this marriage? I don't like the idea of… of me changing. Of _us_ changing."

"You're not," Fang said. "We're still us… no, we're not changing. We haven't changed since that first kiss. You're still my Max."

I sighed. "Well, I wouldn't mind hearing that more often. I mean, you're great when we're alone, but sometimes I need to know that I'm your choice… that in a room of people, you'd go to me first."

Fang raised an eyebrow. "Max, are… are you implying that I may leave you for Sean?"

My face burned. "I… um… no… no, no, no, I don't think that's what I was saying…" I was positive that steam was coming out of my ears. At the very least, I was beet-red.

Fang leaned into me and kissed my hair. "God, you're stupid. I love you."

"I just need more you-and-me time," I said quietly.

"Done," Fang said. "Just ask."

We returned to the flock. "Anybody need a break?" I called.

"This is gonna take forever," Iggy said. "Can't we hijack some military jet? Cruise into the CSM base at the speed of sound?"

I glared at him. "Okay, Iggy, _that_ was…"

"Not me," Iggy said. "Don't look at me."

I turned to Gazzy, who chuckled. "Wanna see a UFO?" he said.

I dove onto him and gave him a hug. "Ah, Gazzy, you're okay…"

"Of course I am," he said, breaking free. "I've always been okay…"

I smiled sadly at him. "Not always."

"No," Gazzy said. "No, I remember the day you left, I… I wanted to die. I don't think I've ever wanted anything more than I wanted to die in that moment. You know, but every problem is temporary. I always put a lot of effort into keeping up the flock's morale, cracking jokes, saving the day. And then when you came back, well, that was a great day for everybody. And now, I… well, now I don't really need to put any effort into being _me_. I can just do it, you know? I feel… I feel really good, most of the time."

I smiled. "Well, that's really nice to hear…"

"But then… then I look at them…" he growled.

I followed his gaze to Jax and Falon. They noticed, but didn't seem to care.

"And then all the bitterness comes bubbling back," Gazzy finished.

"Don't look at them, then," I said.

"Right, like I can avoid them. No… no, I look at them, and I need to fight… SOMETHING. I need to fight something."

Suddenly, something struck me hard in the back. I leaned back and screamed, which hampered my flight.

"What was that?" Nudge demanded.

"I don't know," Imogen said. "Keep an eye out…"

Lines of blood appeared on Imogen's wings, as if they came from within. Iggy's face was whipped back as if by a punch.

We all came together, rotating around each other. Then, we finally saw our aggressor.

She rose on an air current, on a pair of pterodactyl wings as blood-red as her eyes.

"TIME TO DEAL WITH MEEEEE!" Kellie screeched happily.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Where the hell did Kellie get wings? Of course… I've forgotten who was behind her. Whitecoats… sick, twisted whitecoats.

Kellie twirled around us with crazy speed—something we still hadn't gotten used to when she was on the ground… now that she'd taken to the air? Crazy.

She somehow came up beneath us, cracking her feet into Sean's kneecaps. Then, with her bare hands, she snapped his femurs.

Sean passed out, and began to fall straight down. Fang whipped off his backpack and passed it to Iggy, and dove to catch Sean, straight through a low-hanging cloud. I couldn't see where they'd gone… but it couldn't really concern me, as Kellie was continuing to make flyby attacks.

_Max,_ Angel said—it took me a second to realize, not aloud. _I've learned to read Kellie's thoughts to predict her moves. I can help you dodge and fight her._

_Go for it,_ I thought back.

_But, Max? Me passing directions to you and you reacting on them will be way too slow. I'm going to have to take control of your body. Is that okay?_

I inhaled sharply… both at the new knowledge and the new fingernail slashes on my belly. _Do what you gotta do, Angel,_ I thought.

Kellie flew by again, and for a second I clearly saw her face. Her skin was olive-toned, and covered in inky spots of black and indigo and dark blue. The spots swam around on the surface of her skin, as if they were film projections from behind her face. All I could think was, _What a weird, weird creature_.

Then, I found myself in the horrifying position of dodging downwards in a manner outside of my control. But Kellie missed my heart by a split-second, so that was good, at least.

Angel had me twirling downward then, in erratic patterns that Kellie couldn't predict. Evidently, Kellie was usually unprepared for multiple possibilities. But soon, our little chicken-fight was on the slopes of a forested mountain.

My Angel-controlled body danced nimbly from tree to tree… after a while, I caught a glimpse of a very frustrated Kellie, simply knocking down every tree in her path as she flew after me.

I leapt from one tree which, as it turned out, was the last tree on the edge of a clearing. And the clearing was for a big mountain lake. I got a few brief reassuring brainwaves from Angel before I found myself plunging straight in there.

I inhaled sharply, and discovered that, in fact, I could. Great! The gills still work. I was relieved, 'cause, ya know… God only knows if these self-mutations deteriorate over time.

Kellie dove in after me, as I expected. I was prepared for her to be able to swim crazy-fast, maybe have some invisible gills like me. I wasn't prepared for what I saw.

As she swam toward me, her entire body elongated. Her feet fused together and became long pieces of webbing. In no time, there was a red-eyed mermaid swimming after me, her gills popping out on the sides of her head like some obnoxious hair accessories. The red, scaly wings also began to deteriorate, shrink, wither…

Finally, the wings were gone. The process appeared to take time… So maybe if I hopped out of the water and started flying, then I'd gain some advantage.

_Let me go, Angel, I've got this,_ I thought.

Angel did as she was told (damn, they must have really messed her up). I broke out of the water, my feathers wet but moderately workable. I at least got to the edge of the lake before my wings gave out and I had to drop to the ground. Iggy and Gazzy swooped down, ready to carry me until I was dry enough again…

But Kellie leapt out of the water and sailed through the air the entire fifty feet to the shore. As she landed on the ground, her fishy accessories vanished, and she went back to the traditionally human-shaped Kellie that most people recognized.

We'd known she could shapeshift—she'd actually managed to impersonate Gazzy for, like, a minute—but this was freaking crazy. She'd have to be completely altering her entire skeletal and muscular systems. It didn't seem to cause her pain, and it took a couple of seconds… slow for her, but still more rapid than you'd expect.

How did she do it? And how could these evil people create something like her?

"Feel my keen," Kellie hissed.

"Ah, yeah, your mommy mentioned that," I said. "What in the hell's a keen?"

Kellie opened her mouth wide and screamed. I saw the air vibrate with the violent intrusion of the sound waves. It didn't hurt my ears, but my face, my legs, my entire body went numb.

"Ma… Max…?" Iggy slurred. He sounded like his face was numb, too. "What did she do?"

I shook my head, and abruptly, it was clear. Evidently the "keen" didn't last _too_ long.

I saw the veins in Kellie's neck. Promising target… and hey, any target on the body of the woman who personally murdered Total.

I held up my hand for a powerful chop, but found myself stopping. A shapeshifter? An impostor? Yeah, but what I saw on Kellie's face could never be fabricated or rehearsed.

The way she held her tongue between her teeth in concentration… looked exactly like Ella focusing on a difficult predicament. And her entire posture, the posture of a very young child in a deadly mutant's body, was so evocative of Ari…

Kellie was my sister. Created from the saved genes of Jeb Batchelder and Valencia Martinez. I could see it, purely in the way she carried herself…

Could Kellie and I love each other as siblings? As Ella and I always had, as Ari and I had learned to? Kellie shared my blood. That just seemed _so_ important…

And Ari and Ella were only half-siblings. Kellie was a full sister. More related to me than anyone else in the world… well, Tooey. But besides her… Kellie was of my same descent. All I had to do was strike at her throat, but the simple way in which she was so clearly a relative held me back.

Angel tackled me, saving my life as Kellie came in for a swipe of her own.

"Good thoughts, wrong time," Angel whispered.

I suddenly heard a rapid tick-a-tick-a sound, and Kellie flinched.

"Took too long," she whined.

The Survivors' tower appeared at the center of the lake. Kellie jumped thirty feet straight up, and back-flipped onto the roof of the tower. She crouched there as the tower faded from view… a lot more rapidly than it usually did.

"Guess she didn't meet her deadline," Iggy said. "Well, hopefully they'll think she's useless and unplug her."

"I couldn't hit her," I muttered. "She's… she's blood. She's family."

Angel nodded. "I know, Max…"

"Do you?" I asked.

"Totes," Angel insisted.

"But… but she's still Janssen's puppet. If I can't bring myself to kill her, somebody else is gonna have to."

"Okay, no delegating the task of killing your sister," Nudge retorted.

"But…"

"And she's no puppet," Nudge added. "Not like Omega. It's not like 'I don't know how to not kill you'. We've seen her laugh and smile, and get upset, and think things over, like when you asked how many Kellies came before her…"

"You saying Kellie could…" Iggy began, then stopped. "Um… what are you saying, honey?"

"Max couldn't hurt Kellie," Nudge said. "Maybe Kellie could feel the same."

Imogen dropped down with my flock. "Where are Fang and Sean?" she said anxiously.

"Oh, right. Shit, we've gotta find them," I muttered. "Come on, everybody."

Ten of us rose back into the air, getting a couple thousand feet of altitude in. At the foot of the mountain was a city… a big, big city.

"Could they have landed there?" Gazzy wondered.

I exhaled. "I guarantee you that they did. Let's get 'em."


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

I bent my wings back, falling into a rapid dive. I must have descended almost a thousand feet before I caught Sean and decelerated, spreading my wings, and found myself gliding over a traffic-heavy, big-city street. People pointed and stared, and I heard multiple people cry out "FANG!" accompanied by a number of girlish shrieks.

As I tried to get back up to cruising altitude, I checked on Sean… his legs were broken, but he was conscious, so maybe I'd be able to get him flying…

I briefly lost my focus and grazed my wing on a lamppost. Losing my balance, I tried to right myself but smacked my skull against a brick building. I dropped Sean, and collapsed next to him on somebody's apartment balcony.

"Bloody hell, mate," I heard Sean groan.

Before I blacked out, I thought, _what the hell kind of freak accident is this?_

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

"Oh my God! Fang!"

My eyes snapped open. Standing over me and Sean was a round faced woman in her early thirties, with straight black hair, olive skin, and gray-green eyes.

"Fang on my balcony," she said breathlessly.

I sighed. I knew these people. Populated the blog like mad. _Kiss me, Fang. Marry me, Fang. I'd so do you if I could, Fang._ 80-percent annoying, 20-percent flattering, if I had to put numbers to it. I'd always figured, in the back of my mind, that at least a fraction of them who claimed to be in their thirties were telling the truth… and this woman, with her thrilled expression, was my first living proof of that.

"Are you hurt?" she asked. "Can I help you? Oh, God, oh, God… um, I'm Isobel."

I sat up and raised my eyebrows.

"That's my name," she muttered. "Isobel Jamie Rush."

"Swell," I said. "Let's get you up, Sean."

"Sean?" Isobel repeated. "Oh, my… I've never heard of Sean."

"Nobody has," I replied. "We'd like to keep it that way, capisce?" I tightly gripped her jaw in my hand. "Don't tell anybody."

I held out a hand to lift Sean off the ground.

"But… but his legs are broken!" Isobel said, her eyes popping out.

"Don't need legs to fly," I retorted.

"But he needs help!" Isobel exclaimed.

"Don't call a hospital!" I snarled.

Isobel straightened, suddenly looking serious. "I… I wouldn't dare," she said. "But… but… please, let me give you some first aid. And I could give you a place to rest… and I'll order you some takeout food! Please? Please let me help you?"

"No," I said simply. I slung Sean over my shoulder.

"Fang…" he choked out. "Fang, mate, I've gotta tell ye… food, rest, and first aid sound pretty good right about now."

"We'll be fine, Sean," I said. I stood up and straightened… and agony coursed through my bashed head. I groaned and clutched it, very nearly dropping Sean.

"Please," Isobel pleaded. "Please do this for me? And for your friend. Let me help you, Fang."

"We both need it, mate," Sean said.

I growled. "Fine… but listen, Isobel, if you so much as touch either of us…"

Isobel backed up in surprise. "No, I… no need to worry about that… but come in, come in, let me get my apartment ready for you."

Isobel rushed into her apartment, and I followed. I lay Sean down on the couch, and he whimpered weakly.

And that's how Sean and I ended up spending 26 hours living with Isobel Jamie Rush.


	12. Chapter 12

**Has everybody who would read my story at this point disappeared? Well, I'm gonna keep writing anyway in the desperate hope. Here's another couple of chapters for you, nobody. Wow, I'm a bitter, bitter man.**

**Chapter 12**

Lang and Shey had been turned into monsters.

Lao Hu had always objected to such a term—monsters. After all, as Jewel had said, every mutant that survived was plainly a great accomplishment, a work of art. And even if only a handful of them had souls, all of them had minds. So Lao Hu had always avoided the term "monsters", even when she'd been a guard at the underwater base of the Chu Corporation, surrounded on all sides by the 200-foot-long vegetable-like creatures called the Krelp. But there was no other word for what the siblings Liu had become: monsters.

Beautiful, beautiful monsters.

Shey was covered head-to-toe in the purest black feathers. She no longer had any whites in her eyes: pure black all over, barely visible against her black skin. Where she had once had lightly cropped hair, there were now long feathers running down her back—adorned, as they always had been, with a pair of blossoms behind her ears.

Her body was a full two feet taller than she'd been as a human, and she still had the luscious curves she had always been so proud of—albeit feathered. Her legs now bent backward, and ended in talons. And it was on these talons that Shey now ran along the roof of the Survivors' tower before pitching herself over the edge… and rising on a massive pair of wings. Lao Hu then noticed the final touch: the thick feathers on Shey's back extended into a plumed tail that easily doubled her length.

Shey hovered uncertainly, then grinned—a flash of white on her pure black face. "Give it a go, bro!" she called, before beginning to swoop around within the range of the tower's force field.

"Unbelievable," Jewel muttered, rubbing Lao Hu's shoulders.

While Shey was still relatively humanoid, Lang mostly resembled a small predatory dinosaur. Five feet tall and ten feet long, he was also covered in black feathers. His face was a mix of human and dinosaur, with long dagger teeth and wide owlish eyes.

Lang spread his arms, thin with nimble fingers, and adorned with short feathered wings.

"He can't possibly think those will lift him?" Jewel muttered.

But when Lang jumped off the edge, he rose on an air current—with the second pair of wings on his feet. He couldn't fly like Shey, but with four wings he could glide masterfully. Whipping his tail around caused rapid changes in his direction.

Shey and Lang both set down right in front of Lao Hu and Jewel. "So, what do you think?" Shey said cheerfully.

"Why did you do this?" Lao Hu murmured. "And… how?"

"Oh, we had a deal with some people," Lang said evasively. "Would have done it sooner, but we wanted Fang."

"Fang's blood is in us now," Shey said, laughing. Her laugh now included a distinctive, resonating warble. "Lo-o-o-ove it."

They all heard a rapid ticking sound, and as the landscape changed, Kellie hopped onto the top of the tower.

"Kellie!" Jewel said happily. "Where we left off?"

"Not now," Kellie said, rubbing her head. "I have to tell Mommy that I… failed."

Jewel scowled. "Will she hurt you?"

Kellie squirmed. "Mommy, hurt me? N… no…"

"Thinking about what Max said?" Shey said, smirking.

"How many Kellies came before you?" Lang wondered. "How interesting…"

"I'll go with you," Jewel said. "If Janssen decides you're not her Kellie anymore, then I'll let her know you can be _my_ Kellie."

_My Kellie_…

As Jewel and Kellie walked down the stairs, Lao Hu's heart sank. Shey turned and noticed her expression.

"Listen, Lao Hu, we didn't mean anything by it…" Shey said gently.

"No, you were right," Lao Hu said. "Jewel has his Kellie now… his true equal."

Lao Hu drew a large hunting knife from her pocket and sliced her own throat.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Lao Hu woke up on a cot, hooked up to machinery, her neck bandaged over. Turning to the side, she saw blackness, but it gave way to a wide toothy grin.

"Hi, Lao Hu! You're a moron!" Shey said happily.

Lao Hu struggled against the straps on her bed.

"Don't make us regret this," Lang whispered, touching her wrist with his bone-white claws.

Lao Hu saw Jewel sitting in a chair in the corner of the stone room. He was twiddling his thumbs, while his bladed arms were rhythmically tapping the floor.

"Hello," he said coldly.

"Jewel…" Lao Hu stammered.

"Care to explain why you suddenly want to destroy me?" Jewel asked.

"I… I was not…"

"Oh, I think you were, Lao Hu. After all, you tried to do the one thing that could destroy me."

"I was trying to destroy _myself_," Lao Hu said.

"Same thing," Jewel said.

"It… it is because I love you," Lao Hu insisted. "I wanted you free… free to be with Kellie…"

"Be with Kellie?" Jewel repeated. "Kellie is a baby. She helps me fight, that's it. What the frack were you thinking? What have I done to make you think…?" Jewel paused.

"I thought perhaps your desires had changed," Lao Hu said. "It's what you're meant to do."

"What about my beautiful soul?" Jewel sneered. "Could you possibly think that it didn't belong to you anymore?" He stepped up to her and cupped her face in his hands. "I love you, Lao Hu… but I'd like to know where you got such a low opinion of me."

"It was… it was them, actually," Lao Hu said, pointing to Lang and Shey. "They thought you…"

"Hey, we were just making some observations," Lang protested. "Interesting to see, though, what you get out of it…"

Jewel raised a blade. "Don't…" Lao Hu said. "They're part of me, you know that…"

"I wouldn't hurt them," Jewel hissed. "I made a vow." He pressed his forehead against Lao Hu's. "I love you," he said forcefully.

Jewel left the room. Janssen entered immediately after. "Good to see you lived, Miss Cho," she said. "The Survivors would be greatly lessened by the loss of you." She turned to the Lius. "Ah, and I hoped I'd see the two of you here. I've heard about this… amazing success. How did you do it? I was not aware you had any experience with recombinant DNA."

"Us? We don't," Lang said. "We just know some people who know some people who know some…_ stuff_. They let us design our new forms and they… made it happen."

"Well, you're magnificent," Janssen said. "And attractive, as well… not something I'm used to seeing, and if you've ever met an Eraser, you know what I mean."

"Yeah, they sucked," Shey said.

"They did, they did… so, what shall we call the two of you now?"

Lang raised an eyebrow—such a human expression on his dinosaur face was certainly odd. "Call us Lang and Shey. What are we, supervillains?" He turned suddenly to his sister. "We could be supervillains."

"Yes, we could," Shey agreed. "Think, back in the day, when you said 'siblings Liu', people would think, 'oh, those two funny people who were with that mercenary company'. Which was good! Which was very good… but now an entirely different image will come to mind."

"Indeed," Janssen said. "Now, listen… the two of you have proven yourselves very impressive recently… and you've been called to a personal meeting with Headmaster."

Lang and Shey slapped each other high-fives. "Sweet," Lang growled.

"You should think so," Janssen agreed, smiling. "The approval of our leader means a lot."

Janssen led the mutated brother and sister out of the room, leaving Lao Hu alone with her machines.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

The guards at Tran Industries didn't know what to think when a miniscule, needle-nosed airplane landed on a dime at their back entrance. And they certainly didn't know how to react when a giant gull burst from the plane, knocking them all down with its sixty-foot wingspan.

Albert strutted easily through the gate, followed by his four cohorts.

"Move, move," Danny said urgently. "Through the back, come on. They'll know what we're looking for…"

"Couldn't we have sent someone less conspicuous?" Ray demanded.

"Has to be us," Danny said. "You'll see."

The five of them scrambled easily through the back halls, until landing in a corridor, wide and high enough for all of them to stand comfortably. At the end of the corridor was a pair of wide, sky-blue double-doors. A keypad was set in the side.

"Combination lock," Albert muttered. "Felicia, can you do this?"

Felicia had been born deaf, but knew how to read lips. Of course, none of her fellow ICBG mutants actually _had_ lips; therefore she donned a pair of goggles that analyzed her partners' words and wrote them right in front of her eyes.

Felicia slithered forward on her thick coils and examined the keypad. After some thought, she simply tore it off the wall with her teeth.

"Hell, I coulda done that," Ram muttered. He stepped forward to push the door open, but as soon as he touched the pale blue surface, he was blasted back by an electric shock.

"Holy pain, goat-man," he commented. "I mean, ow… that was, like, debilitating."

"You can still _talk_," Ray commented dryly.

"Yeah? Well, suck on this, Ray… I think it's generally known that cartilaginous fish don't feel pain."

Ray's eyes darted around, seeing the group looking at him expectantly. "I'm standing here with the four people in the world who know that," he grumbled. "You're all a bunch of geeks! Okay, I'll do this."

Ray glided to the door, stood erect on the base of his tail, and pushed. Electricity coursed through his body, but he managed to continue pushing.

The door wouldn't budge.

"Well," Ray said. "So, lowdown is, Ram is strong enough to bash the door down, but he can't stand the pain. I can deal with the pain, but I'm not strong enough to push it open. We're stuck."

"I don't suppose you tried _pulling_ on the door?" Ram suggested.

"It's for pushing, Ram," Ray snarled. "Anyway, I guess we're stuck with the old air-vent maneuver."

"Hey, when has that ever failed?"

"Never."

"I know."

"Always works out."

"So, we're agreed on the air vents."

"Yes, we are."

They all looked around, and finally saw a vent above their heads… it was miniscule, barely a foot square. Not even a small child could hope to navigate this building via vent.

"Friggin' tiny vents," Felicia muttered.

"Open it," Danny said. "We'll manage."

"How?" Ram demanded. "We're giants."

"Yes, well, I'm a giant with no bones," Danny said. "Open the vent."

Ram grinned suddenly and broke the cover off the vent.

"Someone hold my glasses," Danny said.

Albert took them in his foot, and Danny hoisted himself onto the ceiling with his eight tentacles. Spread out on the ceiling, the group could see his sharp beak poking out from beneath his shirt.

"Pray I can get the beak through," Danny muttered. "That's all that's stopping me."

In seconds, Danny's massive red form slid flawlessly into the vent. Seconds later, the doors opened, and the entire ICBG stepped into a round, dark room with a blue cube illuminating the center, the same color as the doors.

"Here's what we're looking for," Danny said. "The Heartbeat."

"What is this device, Danny?" Albert said anxiously. "Your habit of keeping secrets is starting to genuinely frighten me."

"Me as well," Felicia said quietly.

Danny held the blue cube between two tentacles. "We just need to get it out of here," Danny said. "The Big Guy designed this machine for Tran Industries years and years ago. When I heard it was finished…" Danny took a deep breath and shook his head. "We need to take it back to our base. But we can't share it with anyone!"

"What does it _do_, Danny?" Ray demanded.

"The Heartbeat cannot be trusted in the hands of any sort of corporation," Danny said. "It has to go to the flock. Only _they_ possess the purity to handle it properly."

"Nobody is _pure_," Felicia said doubtfully.

"No, no, of course not," Danny said, retrieving his glasses. "But the flock come closest. We need to get out of here with the Heartbeat now."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

Isobel ordered us some Thai takeout. We informed her of our massive appetite, but she was perfectly prepared.

As I opened it, I pondered whether the Thai restaurant could be in cahoots with the Survivors or some other whackjob corporation. But I gave up on that after a few seconds. I didn't have any enemies subtle enough to poison food. If it was rigged, it would have already blown up the building.

Sean and I chowed down. Isobel watched us, seeming content and fascinated. Freakin' fan-girls. Of course, they called themselves Fang-girls. They sent me Fang-mail, they write Fang-fiction, it's irritating and not at all clever. I was not pleased by finally meeting one in person.

"What do ye do for a livin', Isobel?" Sean asked.

"I live off of interest," she replied. "There's a lot of it, but I try to keep things… you know, simple."

"Great," Sean said.

Isobel stared briefly for a few more moments, then asked, "How will you get back to your flock?"

I shrugged. "Don't know. They'll find us… they can't have gone far."

"What if Kellie killed them?" Sean whispered.

I stared at him. "Then… then we'll find out about it however we will," I said simply. "After you're recuperated, we'll start searching the town."

"If we don't find anything…" Sean muttered.

"Then we fly back to Ireland alone," I retorted. "That's the way it is."

Sean examined me. "Where's yer pack?" he asked.

"Handed it off to Iggy when I went down to catch you," I said. "With any luck, he's still got it."

"Then the flock have the computer," Sean said. "We can contact them."

"Yeah, you can use my computer," Isobel offered.

I turned to glare at her. "Not worth the risk," I said. "My laptop is untraceable, but any other computer, I start typing stuff to the flock, they'll track me down."

"The flock will track you down?" Isobel said, confused.

"No. _They_ will."

Isobel nodded. "Gotcha… _them_. But if you use my computer, that'll only lead them here, to me, right?" She clenched her fists. "Let 'em come to me. I can deal."

I sighed. "Your loyalty is appreciated…"

"This isn't about loyalty," Isobel said. "I mean, it is, but more, too. I want to face them."

I stared at her. The only reason someone would actually want to deal with "them" would be if… if they wanted to die.

Not my problem. I rolled up to Isobel's computer and got online. I entered the blog and typed "NUDGE" in real big letters.

"She'll find that," I said confidently.

"What if she's not looking?" Sean said pitifully.

"Then we proceed."

Sean nodded.

Isobel left the room for no reason I could discern. A few minutes passed, and she didn't come back.

"Hey, Sean," I said. I usually didn't need to fill silences, but this one seemed different. "Are you gay?"

"What?" Sean demanded. "Of course not."

"You sure? 'Cause Max was talking to me, about us hanging out. Saw a spark."

"Say what?" Sean said, frowning. "Between us? Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not gay. Come on, Imogen is bisexual, and what are the odds that two people in one flock are gay?"

"I don't wanna talk numbers. But frankly, dude, you have silver and purple streaks in your hair."

"Cute," Sean sneered. "Well, if yer wife is worried about me splittin' ye two up, it'll be because I'd do _her_ in a heartbeat if I wasn't afraid that ye'd kick me brains in with me own feet."

"Max would strangle you with one hand before I ever even found out," I assured him.

"Well, there ye go. Was there a point?"

"Oh, sure. Just… don't be a homewrecker, 'kay Sean?"

"Not a problem, mate. What do we do now?"

"We wait for Nudge," I said. "And we rest."

He shifted his broken legs uneasily… I knew how he felt. Waiting was not a game that bird-men liked to play.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

It was early the next morning when Nudge's face appeared on Isobel's computer screen.

"Fang?" she said. "Fang! Sean! Where are you guys?"

I sat down. "Some apartment somewhere," I said. "You?"

"We've been roof-hopping, looking for you guys," Nudge said. "Max, talk to your husband."

Max leaned in. "Hey, babe," she said, waving her arm-stump.

My heart pounded at the sight of her. Even on a grainy computer screen, I nearly died of longing for her. Yep, definitely wouldn't do Sean.

"Catch the name of the town you're in?" Max said anxiously.

"I did not," I admitted.

"Think we're in the same town?" Max asked.

"I hope so," I said. "Here, I can check."

I ran out to Isobel's balcony. I pulled my gun out of my belt loop, placed a specific bullet in, and shot it straight up into the air. In a few seconds, there was a massive explosion above the town. I returned to the living room. Imogen now dominated the screen.

"They saw yer flare," Sean told me. "Definitely close."

"Ye gonna be okay, brother?" Imogen said quietly.

"Absolutely," Sean said. "Put Max back on… I'll see ye soon."

Imogen slid to the side, and Max returned. "Okay, so how do we meet up?" she asked.

I shrugged.

"Okay, how's this… we both fly up and over the town; we'll be able to see each other and then we'll converge somewhere outside of town."

"Copacetic," I said.

Airy popped into the screen. "I love you, Daddy!" she screamed.

I heard Sean chuckle behind me. "Quietly, baby," I said. "I love you too… we'll meet up soon."

The screen went black. "All right, Sean," I said. "I'll carry you out, then once we're flying I'll let you go."

"Cool," he said. He wrapped an arm around my shoulder, and I supported him as we walked to the balcony.

Isobel suddenly appeared in a doorway.

"You're leaving already?" she whispered.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"Yeah, Isobel, we're flapping off," I said. "Thank you for the hospitality."

"No trouble at all," she said. "I… I'd hoped that you could stay longer. That you might come to know me… to like me…"

I pointed to my wedding band. "I'll save you the trouble. You got a good grip, Sean?"

Isobel blushed. "No! No, no, no, no, that's not what I meant…"

I started walking Sean out of the apartment.

"Alton, wait! I mean… I mean… oh, God, oh, God, oh God, not… oh my God, I said Alton, how could I… oh…"

I turned back to her, confused. She had buried her face in her hands.

"I meant… Fang, wait," she said. "There's something you need to see… it's important. To you."

She unlocked a drawer on her computer desk. Digging through it, she found a check. "I never cashed this," she said. "I felt too guilty. I hung onto it… to remind me." She handed it to me.

It was a check from Itex. _Pay to the order of Isobel Rush. $10,000._ The date was eighteen years ago.

I looked from the check to Isobel. "Good to know," I said, handing it back to her.

"I wanted them to call you Alton," she said, scuffing the carpet with her feet. "Alton Rush. But I guess they never went through with it."

"Guess not," I said.

I turned back to the balcony and lifted off with Sean over my shoulder. When we had enough altitude, I let go of Sean and he started flying on his own.

"Ye… ye want to talk about that?" he asked gently.

"Keep your eye out for the flock," I said.

"Fang, do ye realize what happened back there?" Sean demanded.

"With Isobel? Of course I realize what happened. I'm not an idiot."

"And… and doesn't it matter at all to ye?"

I shrugged. "I have to tell you, Seano, the whole parents thing, it's never been high on my list of priorities. _Never_. The other kids, sure. And maybe some of 'em still want to know. But not me. It's never mattered to me."

"But…" Sean stammered. "But now ye've found her."

I grunted.

"I mean, just think," he pestered. "She knew of ye, she'd been following yer life. Can ye imagine, every time she'd open the blog or see ye on the news, she must have been thinkin', 'That's me boy… or could have been'. Gotta tear her apart every time…"

"I don't care, Sean," I said. "I don't…" I paused to clear my throat. "I just really don't care."

I saw ten shapes diving toward the outskirts of the nameless mountain town.

"Come on," I told him. We followed.


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

I shut Fang's laptop, keeping it safe for him. "Come back safe, big brother," I whispered.

Iggy patted me on the butt. "He can take care of himself," he said. "Hey, Nudge, you, uh… you think we can go the distance, with this whole marriage thing?"

"Of course," I said, leaning on his shoulder. "It's a commitment."

"Yeah, but is it an actual commitment, or is it like the time you said you were going to be a vegetarian?" Iggy challenged.

"Yeah, 'cause that didn't work out, like, at all," Gazzy offered.

"Hey, who invited you into this conversation?" I said, leering at him.

"I'm letting him in," Iggy replied. "Gazzy, give us the playback."

"Well, my memory isn't perfect, but I believe it went something like, 'I'm not eating meat anymore'," Gazzy said, naturally imitating me to perfection.

"Fast-forward to when we broke into somebody's vacation home…" Iggy said.

"'Thank God they're not vegetarians!'" Gazzy finished.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I couldn't commit," I said. "I swear, this is the same thing you did when I wanted to find Aaron… stop judging me for things I said when I was _eleven_. I'm not saying I'm an adult just yet, but I fully intend to love you for the rest of my life, Iggy… and to have a baby with you."

Iggy sighed and took my hand. "I'm sorry, you're right. Hey, I know we're not splitting up. Keegan promised."

Keegan… Max's best friend, a mutant with powers limited only by her imagination… veritable omnipotence. She'd never really seemed to notice anyone but Max, but on our wedding day, she… yeah. She promised. She promised us a baby.

"We should have brought the Cell," Iggy mused.

Max raised an eyebrow. "How's that, Ig?"

"Yeah, the Cell," Iggy said. "We should have brought it along on our rescue mission. I bet it would have liked to join us… and I'd definitely want to hang onto it while we're trying to fly back to the CSM."

"Yeah," I agreed. "We could carry it, and stroke it… What can I say? We really love that big old charcoal briquette."

"Why?" Max said blankly.

"Oh, you know," Iggy said. "It was there for us during the miscarriage, and when we had to talk about things… we bonded, us and the Cell."

"Well, that's sweet, I guess," Max said.

I nodded fondly at the sweet memories.

"They had sex in it on their honeymoon," Angel said dismissively.

"Reeeeeeally?" Max said. "Well, there's an unexpected new chapter of the long-running _Nudge and Iggy_ porn series."

"Oh, come on, we're in love," I protested.

"Nevertheless… you consummated your marriage inside of a person. That's a new level of kinky for you two."

"Hey, it's not like the Cell's gonna tell anybody," Iggy said, smirking. His eyes darted back and forth theatrically. "No other dudes around? All right, I'll wait for Fang and Sean."

"What the hell am I, furniture?" Gazzy demanded.

"Oh yeah, you. Anyway, here they come. Tell them, Nudge, about the honeymoon."

Fang settled down on the top of a mountain boulder. Sean continued to circle around, unable to land on his broken legs.

"Ig, hold him," Fang said.

Iggy held Sean around the middle and lifted him off the ground. Sean is six-five, the exact same height as Fang despite being three years younger, but Iggy is an entire foot taller. He held Sean at arm's length, with his feet dangling off the ground.

"So, how you been for the past day?" Iggy said cheerfully.

Fang swooped down and tapped Iggy's head before landing to give Max a quick kiss. "We're fine."

Sean angled his head toward Fang. "Ye're not gonna tell 'em?"

"No," Fang said simply.

"Tell us what?" I asked.

"Freakin'… nothing," Fang snapped.

Imogen laid out a blanket for Sean, and Iggy set him down. "Fine, mate," Sean said. "Ye don't tell anybody, I will."

"I don't care," Fang said firmly.

"Okay," Sean said, shrugging. He looked around at everyone. "As fate would have it, the Black Raven Barbarian here found his mother."

Angel gasped.

"No freaking way," Max said. "Fang, tell us about this."

Fang cleared his throat and sat down on the ground. "Well, my name was Alton Rush. My mother, Isobel, sold me for ten thousand bucks. She's got no job, lives off of interest, but she never cashed her Itex check so I don't know what the interest is from…"

"Wow, and… and you just happened to turn up at her apartment?" Max hissed. "Oh, COME ON!"

"What, babe?" Fang said dully.

"Oh, please. Look, I bought that the first human being I ever loved and trusted happened to turn out to be my mother, odd as that was… but come on, you fall into a city and the balcony you land on happens to belong to YOUR MOTHER? Somebody is screwing with us again! Messing with our circumstances to monitor our mutant brains' responses."

"How could that be?" Gazzy demanded.

Max turned sharply to Falon and Jax. "Hey! You two! You're lab subjects. Ever had anything implanted in you?"

The twins exchanged looks. "None dat we know of," one of them muttered.

Max came between the twins and started yelling in their ears. "Hey! Yeah, you! School, Itex, Survivors, whoever the frack you are, quit screwing up our lives! We're people! We're not experiments, we're people!"

"Max," Fang said. "Look, if somebody set this up, the joke's on them. 'Cause, about my mother… I don't care at all."

"Well, I do," Max snapped. "And I'm not going through this again." She started feeling around the twins' muscles, as if trying to locate a chip.

I sat down next to Fang. "You _do_ care, don't you?" I said.

He sighed. "No."

"You do, Fang, you have to."

"Of course I do," Fang said. "But I wish I hadn't. I mean, it's been confirmed. When she had me, she was the same age I am now. She received compensation. I'd be willing to bet she had no clue who my father was."

"Well, you don't know that, Fang," I insisted. "Maybe she loved your dad. Maybe she lost him _and_ you. Double heartbreak."

"She still sold me. I'm not going to let myself care about her."

"Yeah… yeah," I muttered. "But at least you know who you're not caring about."

He looked at me blankly.

"Max has a family. Iggy met his. Gazzy and Angel have seen the photographs, seen the checks. And now you. But me, I have absolutely no clue where I came from. And I'm the only one."

He wrapped an arm around me. "You're better off, sis. Look at the facts. Iggy's family was a disaster. Gaz and Angel know their parents are scum, they've got no interest in meeting them. Max lucked out, but don't count on your mom being another Dr. Martinez."

"I could luck out too, Fang," I told him. "And maybe you have! Did you even give this Isobel woman a chance?"

He snorted, then sighed. "No, no I didn't." He paused. "You have my laptop?"

I handed it to him. "You're not completely clueless anymore," I said. "It's just me now."

I abruptly felt Iggy's huge, strong hands come up on my other side. "You know you're incredible, don't you?" my new hubby whispered. "You know who's going to 'luck out' when they find out who their parents are? _Our_ baby."

I leaned on him, as he pulled me away from Fang. His shining blue eyes were so full of love.

"When do we _get_ a baby?" I wondered.

"When the time's right, pretty-pretty. Not while we're flying around lost. Keegan knows how to give a proper blessing, I guarantee it."


	17. Chapter 17

**Okay, this will be my last update until I see proof, and lots of it, that somebody is actually reading **_**Flyin'**_**. Because I'm starting to get depressed. Please, please, somebody be out there.**

**Chapter 17**

"Okay, pack it up, flock," I said. "I" being Max. Finally. I've gone without narrating for, like, six chapters. I thought this was my story…

"So, we're flying all the way back to base?" Max II said. "I'm not doing that, Max."

"If I may proffer a suggestion," Iggy said. "In Fang's Mom City over here, there's a Lamborghini dealership. Who wants to steal some Lamborghinis?"

I looked immediately to Gazzy.

"No, no, that really was Iggy," Gazzy insisted. "But for the record, I think it's a bitchin' idea."

"Hell yeah," Nudge said.

"There we go, I got supporters," Iggy said. He scooped up Nudge and Gazzy in his arms and planted a super-hot and very tonguey kiss on Nudge. He then paused and looked at Gazzy, who was waiting expectantly. "I'm not kissing _you_ like that, Gaz," Iggy assured him.

"No problem," Gazzy said. "Let's steal a Lamborghini."

"Okay, okay, you guys," I said. "Even if we're going to steal a Lamborghini—which we're not—they only seat two. What's your plan there?"

"So we'll get six of 'em," Iggy said.

"Right, because nobody's going to notice _six_ Lamborghinis driving east through the Rocky Mountains," I said.

"Oh, come on," Iggy said. "Like any law enforcement, government, or evil people could possibly have the means to catch all of us in Lamborghinis."

"Hell, I'm liking this idea," Max II said. "Where's the dealership?"

Iggy fiddled with a set of false keys. God knows where and when he picks up all these toolkits for thievery. "We break in after dark," he said.

"No we don't, Iggy," I said.

"Come on, it'll be easier on the wings," Angel said. "It's a lot more stylin' than just flapping."

"I'm game," Imogen said. "Come on, Max, we'll drive as long as we can, then we'll fly."

"I wanna ride in a car!" Airy said excitedly.

"No, no we will not drive as long as…" I said. "…Okay, fine. I want to ride in a Lamborghini."

"Yeah, you do," Iggy said.

I rested on Fang's chest. "I hate it when they do that," I said to him.

"And now there are twice as many of them," Fang said solemnly, with a mild chuckle. Like he has any other kind of chuckle. "But hey, you and me get our own Lamborghini out of it."

"Fang, I don't think I can put a car in gear without my right hand."

"I'll drive, babe," he said. "It'll be nice."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

As it turned out, we only stole five Lamborghinis, rather than six. Airy sat on my lap, and Gazzy and Angel doubled up on the shotgun position in the car that Max II was driving.

"Iggy?" I called. "You're not driving."

"I can drive just fine," he said.

"No. Nudge is driving you," I commanded.

Imogen helped Sean into a passenger seat. The twins lowered themselves onto the seats. "Oi, Max!" one of the twins called.

I inspected her. "Yeah, Jax?" I replied.

"Any of you have driver's licenses?" she asked.

"Not even a little bit," I said cheerfully. Fang revved the engine.

"Fantas'ic," she muttered. "We're all gonna die."

"Maybe just you," I said hopefully.

As we tore out, I heard Iggy's voice over the CB. Again, I wish I knew where the hell he got five CBs. He's got twitchy fingers, that one.

"Max Rider, this is the Swedish Chef. We're on the warpath, everybody have a good connection?"

Fang took the CB. "Swedish Chef, this is Black Raven Barbarian, read you loud and clear. Everybody else checking in?"

"F… Fang?" said a voice on the radio, one I didn't recognize. "Fang, is that you?"

Fang frowned. "Isobel?"

"Oh, Fang, I was so sure I'd never see or hear you again, you don't know how…"

"Listen, Isobel, I'm with the flock and we're trying to get back home as fast as we can," Fang said. "I'll send you an email… Mom."

I looked at him with shock. He shrugged. "Nudge convinced me," he said.

There was no answer from Isobel. I guess we'd just popped out of her range…

"Swell," Iggy said. "Okay, can everybody hear me? Check in."

"This is Thailog, checking in," said Max II.

"Betty Kane, checking in," Imogen responded.

I looked over my shoulder at the twins. They rolled their eyes at me. Pretending not to be involved in our communications, now? Wow, they certainly are a couple of pleasant girls.

I took the radio from Fang. "Swedish Chef, what's our plan vis-à-vis ditching Lady Sovereign and Lily Allen?" They glared.

"All in good time, Max Rider," Iggy said. "Right now we're hauling ass, we're crossing the country… hell, I'd drive this thing all the way to Ireland across the bottom of the ocean if it meant I could keep it. But I digress, we're on the right track, we look awesome. Swedish Chef out."


	18. Chapter 18

**Well, I've decided to continue regardless of readership or lack thereof. (I still have absolutely none…) Just to finally get this stuff typed up so it's not cluttering my brain anymore. Though I'll always be praying for my readers to return…**

**Chapter 18**

I gotta admit: I would forever admire Iggy for this idea. I'd never, ever tell him that, but I'd be sending positive energy his way. I _loved_ my Lamborghini.

"You know who'd enjoy this?" I said.

"Who?" Fang asked.

I sank back, closing my eyes. "Keegan," I replied.

"Yeah?" my friend said, appearing at my side instantly.

Fang chuckled. "Hey, Keegs," he said.

"Hey, Fang," she said, beaming at him. Keegan then turned to me. "So, what's up?"

I started a bit. I could have sworn that, when Keegan turned from Fang back to me, she had vanished briefly… I let it go. Just a little mirage or something.

"Nothin'," I said. "I… I guess I just wanted to see you… I'm sorry, I've torn you out of your life for no reason… you can go back, I guess."

"Nah, I'm good," Keegan said, shrugging. "You've given me a small reprieve from a _Raymond_ marathon."

"What's wrong with that?" Fang said. "Don't you like _Raymond_?"

"Of course I do. Everybody does. Best sitcom of the generation. But when you watch all nine seasons nonstop with no breaks, you get a bit _Raymond_-ed out."

"All nine seasons nonstop?" I repeated incredulously.

"Yeah, Niles has 'em all on DVD, and… ugh, I hate to speak ill of him, but it's like… he _always_ has to finish what he starts. Oh, and he forced me to make it so we don't have to eat or sleep or anything until the series is finished. And all the audio commentaries and features and stuff."

"Won't he know you've ditched him?" I said.

"No, I froze him in time. He's got no clue."

"Ah."

Keegan sighed. "I suppose I'll have to be getting back to him before too long. But it's nice to see you guys, it always is."

"You too, Keegan," I said.

Fang smiled. "Yeah, it's great."

"So, what else is going on with you and Niles?" I asked. "Has he proposed yet?"

Keegan looked horrified. She flickered and almost disappeared.

"Keegan, what just happened?" I demanded.

"Nothing, nothing," she muttered.

"No, no, it's happening again," I insisted. "It's like you're glitchy or something."

Keegan shook her head frantically. "Impossible. I don't _get_ glitchy. I'm all-powerful."

"We were made in the same lab," I said. "Could be an expiration thing?"

"Nuh-uh," Keegan said. "I got rid of my expiration date a long time ago."

She flickered again, like a bad TV signal…

"Well, _something_ is up," I said.

Keegan looked concerned before she looked ahead. "Something's coming for you."

I followed her gaze. A cloud of creatures was indeed making its way toward us.

"Yup," I said. "Help us out?"

Keegan flickered again. "I—I can't help you—not with—what's—ing on…"

She vanished altogether.

"Keegan?" I muttered. Nothing, not even a returning flicker. "KEEGAN!" I screeched.

A few flockmates gave me concerned looks from their own cars… we'd all seen Keegan stumble, and it hadn't been the first time… like when I'd asked her for a status update on Angel, and she had stammered for a moment before giving an entirely wrong answer…

Pressing matters, Max. Pressing matters.

"Angel?" I said into the CB.

"Call me by my handle," she said.

"What?"

"My CB handle."

I sighed. "What's your handle again?"

"Thing Two. Gazzy is Thing One."

"Right, that's… right. Okay… Thing Two. See what's up ahead of us?"

"Yeah… looks like a few of our old favorites."

"Flyboys?" I said.

"Nope," Angel said. "I'm pickin' up a flurry of thoughts, Max Rider. Those are Erasers."

I inhaled sharply.

Nudge, at the front of our herd, piped in. "This is Lady Chatterly, and I'm agreeing with Thing Two's analysis. We've got flesh-and-blood Erasers coming our way."

Nudge paused briefly as the fast-moving cloud of Erasers got closer to our faster-moving Lambos.

"If I had to guess," Nudge said hesitantly, "they're not only Erasers, they're Imogen-based Erasers."

I turned to Imogen, who squinted ahead, frowning.

Nudge was exactly right. The Erasers' wings were twice as wide as mine, a full twenty-eight feet, and flapping rapidly just like Immy's. The hair on their heads was red-blond, and to a lesser extent, even the wolf fur covering their bodies was blonder than any Eraser I'd known… and believe me, I remember every Eraser I've seen in striking detail.

And I swear, I could see their turquoise eyes. I wasn't imagining it.

Imogen hadn't turned on her CB, but I saw her mouth "What the bleedin' hell?"

The Eraser pack dove down. There were… fifty? Maybe sixty? And of the twelve of us, Sean was out of commission with his snapped legs, Airy was too little to fight, I certainly couldn't dive into my old two-arms-not-optional fighting repertoire. That made nine able-bodied warriors… and I didn't even know how well Max II and Imogen and the twins could fare in real combat…

But I liked the odds anyway. Erasers are back in production? That's _good_. Because I actually know what to do with Erasers.

"Get it on," I said.

I hopped onto the hood of the car and leapt straight into the posse. A few of them swooped in on me, but came short and got plowed by Nudge's car, which spun out of control and slowly began to flame…

I drove my sneakered feet into a few faces, and Fang came right in beside me and performed the old clap-over-the-ears bit. His Immy-raser screamed in agony. I lamented that I couldn't perform that super-satisfying attack at the moment. I settled on smooshing their faces with one fist…

Iggy and Nudge bailed from their burning car. The explosion cracked the highway, and a few unlucky airborne Erasers sizzled. The two of them, though, they just clasped their hands together and used the heat from the explosion as an updraft to rise way, way up. Ever hear of high ground? Well, we use high air.

One Eraser punched Nudge full in the face, and before Iggy could even growl and move to protect her, she had retaliated with a snapping crescent kick that got not only her attacker, but the one directly above it too. Iggy did a barrel roll and planted a kiss on Nudge, then called out "Catch!"

An Eraser watched the arc of a small flying object, then howled in pain when it exploded right in his face. A few Erasers tumbled down, nothing left of them but bones.

Angel signaled to Max II, then hand in hand with Gazzy leapt out and bounced out of her car, then launched off the hood of mine and Fang's car, which was still moving.

Airy moved to follow them. "No!" I shrieked. "Don't let them get Airy! Somebody protect Airy!"

Fang heard, and swooped back to the car, shielding Airy with his thick wings. Some of the Erasers could tell that he was hiding something, and went straight for him.

Let 'em try to fight past my babe when he's protecting our baby.

About ten Erasers were scratching up Imogen's car, slowing it down with a dreadful scraping noise. Imogen looked horrified—I could identify, I'd seen myself in Eraser form—but knocked aside as many as she could on her side of the car before leaping to Sean's side.

I nodded, satisfied. My flock was holding their own. I looked straight ahead, and an Eraser's long black claw instantly pierced the center of my right eye.

My scream froze every person involved in the combat. The Erasers going after Fang and Airy turned to look at me, and the car flipped over. My love and my child got out, but most of the Erasers weren't so lucky. The car exploded, shrapnel flying everywhere.

The Eraser with his finger stuck in my cornea kicked at my wings, and I retaliated with a kick of my own, that blasted him back, goo-covered claw and all.

I fell.

I landed in the middle of the road, somehow finding myself directly in front of the broken-off sideview mirror of my Lambo. I saw myself. Where I used to have an eye, there was a bright red vertical slit. I knew, then, I _knew_ that I would never see out of that eye again. No duh, right? But it struck me as a profound thought at that moment.

I didn't want to go on at that moment. One arm, one eye, no sign of any allies… I wasn't suicidal right then, per se. But if death was to come for me, I wasn't going to resist.

But then I saw in the rearview mirror, what was going on behind me. An Eraser was standing on the ground and advancing toward me. Airy was fluttering behind at his eye level, and as I watched she wrapped her entire body around his head and gave a great heave, snapping his neck.

My daughter… three years old and celebrating her first kill.

It was awful. I hadn't wanted that for her. And I didn't want to see her ever, ever do that again.

Well, more than that… if I hadn't wanted to _see_ it again, I could have just died right then. But, no. I truly wanted it to never _happen_ again. I had to intervene.

I got to my feet, my head clearer than it had been for a long, long time. I walked up to Airy and held her tightly, then methodically walked forward, leaving no Immy-rasers alive in my wake.

It was a while before I realized that I was still going forward, and there was nothing to fight. I felt a hand on my shoulder that I knew was Fang's before I even saw it.

Fang covered his mouth at the sight of my eye. "Dear God…"

"Yep," I said. "My right side isn't doing so good lately."

He sighed, probably relieved that I could still crack wise. It's when I stop that you gotta worry about my sanity.

I looked around, and saw rubble that had once been four cars. Jax and Falon pulled up in the one Lambo that remained intact. Figures. They probably hadn't left their car once in the whole fight. Bosomy red-headed diminutive Cockney bitches.

All the others settled down around me, including Sean, supported between Immy and Iggy.

"How's everybody?" I said.

Iggy waved a hand, presenting the entire group. "Fantastic, Max."

He had a great bruise on his forehead. Nudge was visibly favoring one shoulder, and had to keep one wing extended to avoid the extreme pain. Gazzy had two black eyes and two cuts on his lips—almost perfectly symmetrical.

I hated seeing them all like this. It had been so long since we'd been in this state!

But none of them had sustained permanent injuries; indeed, I don't think any of them ever had. I'd lost an arm and an eye. Lucky me! I have the distinction of being the permanently handicapped one.

"Out of the car," I said to Jax and Falon. "Let's find a place to hang out and recuperate until morning. Tomorrow, we… we fly. All the way to base."


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

We gathered around our poorly-constructed campfire. We'd cut down a couple of trees, and were sitting down on 'em… Being a bit of a glutton for punishment, I had brought along the mirror. I looked at my scarred eye and laughed out loud.

Nudge raised an eyebrow.

"This is _so_ gonna get infected," I chuckled. "I'm, like, gonna die, Nudge."

"You got some time left," Nudge said.

"You think they do eyes?" I asked.

"Who?"

"I don't know. The cybernetics people? Maybe Danny? Maybe he can give me an eye."

Angel came and sat next to me.

"This sucks," she said.

"Yeah," I agreed.

"My fault," she said.

"Not at all, sweetie."

"Sure it is… you didn't have to come save me."

I turned to her condescendingly. "Yeah, I _so_ did have to save you, Angel. You're a piece of me."

"I dunno if it was worth it," Angel said.

"Yeah, it cost an arm and an… eye."

"Right. _Actual_ pieces of you."

"Still not worth as much as you," I said in a singsongy voice.

Imogen was rubbing her forearms. She looked really shook up.

"Sup, Immy?" I said.

She didn't answer.

"Come on," I said. "Come fly with me."

She unfurled her wings, then looked at them almost shamefully and folded them back up. "Don't feel like it," she said.

"We'll walk then," I said. "Just come with me, Imogen. That's an order as your mentor."

She glared. "I'm not yer protégé. I'll never be you, Maximum Ride."

I stood up. "Walk with me _now_, Imogen."

She stood up and came with me.

"What's eating at you?" I said.

"Eatin' at me?" she repeated. "That doesn't cover it. I'm _devastated_."

"The Erasers?" I said.

"Ye think?" she snapped.

"Not your fault," I assured her. "Immy, what they do with your DNA is not your fault. You gotta remember that."

"But… but who took me DNA?" she demanded.

I shrugged. "Ever had your blood drawn?"

"All the time," she said. "But it was always by me teachers at the School, aye? Who else coulda made these monsters from meself? I mean, I thought they… I mean, I told ye how much I respected 'em, cared for 'em?"

"Uh-huh."

"I thought I could trust these people, and now… now I find that me blood's been used to spawn these… these terrible things…"

"Ah, yeah," I said. "Trusting people. Yeah, don't frickin' do that, Imogen."

She stared at me.

"Kidding," I said. "Look, we're all used to Erasers. My brother was one."

"Really? What happened to him?"

"Expired," I said simply. "Poor little guy. We were enemies for a long time, I even killed him once, then they brought him back, and… he was always popping pills and in so much pain and having to fight and stuff."

"God damn," Immy mumbled.

"Yeah. Erasers. They're proof that our world is evil, Immy, and that's a fact. And Erasers made from _you_? Well, that's a nice lesson for you, _mein_ protégé. You can't _trust_ these people who want to change the world."

Imogen sighed and scratched herself behind the ear. I jumped back in alarm, and she raised an eyebrow.

"Immy," I breathed. "How… how long have you had ears like that?"

"Like what?" she said, feeling her ears. "AAAH!"

Her ears were enormous and furry. She had bat ears. I could have sworn…

"When did that happen?" I demanded.

"I… I dunno… I've got human ears, Max!"

"Well, apparently you don't, pal," I said.

"What could this mean?" she squeaked.

"I don't know," I said. "I don't… maybe it's some sort of degenerative mutation? Like, your bat DNA is overtaking your primary, human… thing? I don't know, I'm just spitballing. But you're not like the rest of us. I mean, Sean and Jacqueline and Falon, they're all the same as my flock, but you've got a different muscular and skeletal system, different lungs and stuff. Probably different programming, too. Maybe it's an expiration thing, too? Maybe, as a different sort of mutant, you're supposed to expire earlier than your eighteenth."

Imogen blinked at me. "Ye call that spitballing?"

"In my world, that's spitballing. Come on, let's get back to camp."

Immy tried to keep her ears concealed, but it was inevitable—everyone noticed.

"Oh, me…" Sean gasped. "Imogen, what's goin' on?"

"We're thinkin' some sort o' degenerative mutation," Imogen said glumly.

"Ooh, like dat one _Spider-Man_ story," Falon offered. "Where 'e's go' the six arms, and even'ually becomes Man-Spider?"

Imogen stared at Falon. "And… how did that story end?"

Falon thought. "I don' remember."

"Wonderful."

"You're good, Im," I said. "When we get back to base, we'll get somebody who knows some shit, and we'll cure these, and get your expiration dates removed, on all four of you."

"'Ow?" Jax demanded.

"Jeb will know," I said. "With his own experience and some salvaged stuff from the Big Guy's research, he knows everything there is to know about mutants."

I sat down.

"You still admire him, don't you?" Fang said.

"Who, Jeb? I don't know. He's useful, I guess. But… nah, he's no good. He still abandoned the flock, then put Angel through all that crap. He might be loyal now, but it's too little, too late, man."

Angel looked up at me. "I'd say you're being overly defensive, Max. Like, trying to convince yourself."

I shrugged. "No, there's no need for that. I've got Jeb figured out."

"Yeah, but do you have your feelings about him figured out?" Angel asked.

"You tell me," I said. "Read my mind, make sure I'm being honest with myself."

Angel considered. "I can't go that deep, Max. It's way beneath the surface. You'll have to figure this out yourself."

I noticed a cricket crawling near the campfire. Well, that certainly reminded me of Jeb. For purely experimental purposes, Jeb had mutated himself into a human/cricket hybrid, giving him an indestructible exoskeleton and a pair of wings that produced a deafening cricket-call. Like the simple fact that I couldn't get rid of him didn't make him creepy enough.

I flicked the cricket into the fire and watched it sizzle.

I know, right? That's called symbolism.

Max II nodded. "We back you, Max. You know that."

"Thanks, Max," I mumbled.

I leaned on Fang, and Airy leaned on me.

"Everybody set up a sleeping space, a comfortable patch of earth," I said. "Nobody go too far."

Nudge raised her hand.

"Nudge?" I said, like I was calling on her in class.

"Um, yeah, I don't think I can just go to sleep, 'cause I haven't had sex since, like, yesterday…"

I stared.

"So, uh, can we sleep in the car?" she said. "You know, like… _sleep_? Um, _in_ the car?"

I rolled my eyes… I mean, eye. Crap, I've got one eye.

"Fine, sleep in the car," I said. "But if tomorrow we can't find you 'cause you've been kidnapped or something, I'm gonna be real pissed off."

The two of them flew off, already starting to get all up in each other's business.

Fang and I scuffed marks into the ground and curled up together. Airy came to rest between us, and we didn't object.

"Night, Gaz," Angel said, fluttering off.

"Night," Gazzy replied quietly, staying where he was.

Everybody exchanged their various goodnights, and I didn't really listen. I just wanted to get back to Ireland and make everything… _right_.

**I had hoped to end this chapter on the emotional "symbolic cricket" note, but the dialogue continued automatically from there to the humorous "Iggy and Nudge like sex" note. That's what always happens, stuff goes past what I thought it would; I must be like a really good author or somethin'.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

Life doesn't get a whole lot worse than this. I mean, I've always been a brooding mutant freak with no home. Now I'm a brooding mutant freak with one arm, one eye, and something akin to a home, but being unable to reach it.

Not being able to get to your home is worse than having no home at all. Ask any philosopher.

Hey, I've met plenty of goddamn philosophers, okay?

Anyway, consider my alarm when a high-tech, ginormic jet plane named _Needlenose II_ fit itself elegantly between the mountain trees and hovered above us so freaking perfectly.

Thankfully, I was quickly un-alarmed, because from the bottom of the plane was a rope ladder on which Noah and Laren Janicke were dangling, a.k.a. Ray and Ram. So named because—well, you've read at least _some_ of the previous installments of this fanfiction, right? Come on, I've been journaling since the Colorado mountain house, read at least a little bit of it.

"Need a lift?" Ram called.

"Oh, sweet!" Nudge yelled. "Hey, hey guys, you got room for a Lamborghini on the _Needlenose II_?"

"Sure," Ram said, shrugging.

"Nudge, baby, it's a miracle," Iggy said.

They loaded up the last Lamborghini, then the rest of us started flying in.

"Whoa, Max," Ray said. "What happened to you, dude?"

I shrugged. "I got my arm cut off, then I got my eye gouged out. Shit happens. I got enemies."

"No kidding," Ray muttered. "Wow, I'm so sorry…"

"I'm okay," I said.

The flock gathered in the cabin of the plane. It was a real big plane! There was room to spare, even for Ram and Ray as the ladder was hoisted back up.

"So, _Needlenose II_," I said. "What happened to the first _Needlenose_? Just so I'm, you know, prepared. Get blown up?"

"Nah," Ray said. "It was too small. So, me and Ram redesigned it quick-snap, and it was all good."

"Hey, Brigid," Fang said. He walked up and gave her a powerful hug. She settled in happily, as he stroked her red-gold hair.

I didn't mind so much. Fang had told me that, in spite of Brigid's off-kilter mental state, occasional alliance with the villains of our series, and her constant trying to have sex with him, he loved Brigid as a daughter. I tried to see her that way too. Like my firecrotched, old-as-dirt, crazy-ass daughter.

Maybe a stepdaughter. Like Cinderella. Except the daughter is the evil one.

No, that ain't fair. She's not evil, and she's not old as dirt. And she's doing better with the craziness. Some therapy and medication, gets her thinking more clearly now. But she _is_ a firecrotch. I've seen it. I've seen Brigid naked. There are worse things. If you've ever seen a Krelp, you know what I'm talking about.

Okay, at this point, _I_ don't know what I'm talking about. Anyway, there was Brigid… and Akila. She was noticeably rounder; the big ol' Malamute had been knocked up with six puppies by her husband shortly before Kellie ripped out his spine. Airy came under Akila and started feeling around for puppies.

"When do the puppies come?" Airy asked.

Brigid kneeled down. "Not for another two weeks, Airy. We've seen inside her, though. There are three boy puppies and three girl puppies."

"YAY!" Airy chirped.

In the corner of the room, Albert was wearing Felicia like a boa. Which doesn't really work, because she's more of a python.

Sorry, that was awful.

Anyway, Albert and Felicia are the loveliest couple I've ever seen. They don't need to touch one another—they've learned not to, because they can't. But you can see their love in their weirdly human eyes, when they gaze at each other.

Ella came out and me and smothered me with hugs and kisses. Good kid, that Ella.

"I've missed you," she said. "Holy shoot! Mom ought to look at that eye…"

"Yeah, that occurred to me," I said dryly.

"Hey, look what I got," Ella said. She held up a black, curved object, like a headband or a bracelet or something. I don't know anything about fashion. Sue me.

"What's that?" I said.

The object melted and began to expand, into a one-foot-wide black cube.

"It's the Living Cell!" Nudge said. "I didn't know it could do that!"

"It's learning," Ella said. "It can do lots of shapes now."

Nudge took the Cell from Ella. "Hello," she said sweetly, kissing it. It rumbled contentedly, nuzzling her.

Noelani Akana opened up the door at the edge of the cabin. Now, there's the first person I saw aboard the plane that didn't entirely delight me. She's a bit of a stalker, I'd say. A bit too fascinated by us to really actually care about us, if you know what I mean.

"Hi, Max," she said.

"Sup?" I said. I turned back to Ella. "So, what brings you to our neck of the woods?"

"We came to save you," Ella said. "When you didn't come back after a couple days, we put together all your most trusted-type people."

"Trusted people?" I said. "What's with Dr. Akana?"

Akana raised her eyebrow. "I know how to fly the plane."

"Oh. Well, good for you." I studiously ignored her, returning my attention to Ella. "But how'd you find us? Are there some kinds of tracers on somebody?"

"Not that I know of," Ella said. "We got other ways to pinpoint you."

"Like… like what?"

"Ray and Ram know how to enter the fifth dimension. Not important. Anyway, what in the world has been going on? I've never seen you so bloody and… stuff…"

Suddenly Max II tugged on my shirttail. "Max, what's… what's that smell? What _is_ that?"

I sniffed, then grinned widely. I hadn't noticed, but there it was… "That, my darling, is Mom's cookies."

Max II blinked. "No. That's impossible. I mean, I've heard about… but… no, _nothing_ smells that good…"

I giggled and kissed her forehead. "You poor, deprived clone. You go get Mom's cookies."

"Yeah," she said breathlessly.

She started for the second room, but Gazzy blocked her path.

"Those are _my_ cookies, foul beast," he said. He spoke in a monotone and flapped his lips around wildly. Evidently, that's his impression of a dubbed Chinese film. That had to be explained to me later; I had no idea.

Max II got into a defensive posture and started to bob around Gazzy. Well, hey, if there's gonna be a cookie-fight… I'm getting there first.

I entered the room, and there was my mom, with her great big plate o' chocolate chip cookies, the perfect image of momliness.

I snatched one. "Good deal, Mom," I said.

She looked at my injuries and frowned sympathetically, not seeming surprised. "Oh, Max…"

"I'm okay," I said. I was getting tired of all this sympathy.

Also in the room, there was Danny, scribbling away at whatever superpower for justice and might he was working on right then. And Jeb. Whatever.

"Hello, Max," he said.

"Hi," I said. "I got some stuff for you to do."

He smiled at me.

"Don't get the wrong idea," I said. "You know why I'm asking you to do this? You know how. I'm not your pawn. You're my pawn."

"Understood," Jeb said.

I took a bite of cookie. Mmmmm, damn good cookie.

Well, I don't know where we're going now, but I get the feeling it's good. Lots of good people…


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

"So, Danny," Max said. "These cybernetics. Can you hook me up?"

"I suppose," he said nervously. "Obviously, I can calculate and implement these things, no problem, but are you sure it's what you want, Max?"

"You kidding?" she demanded. "Of course it's what I want. I'm not defending my flock with some lame prosthetics. I want advanced cyborg weaponry. Like the suicide sniper at the air show. You remember that, Fang?"

I shrugged. "Yeah. Whatever you're going for, Max."

"Yeah, that's what I'm going for," Max said. "Stick it right there into my nerve endings. Can you do that?"

"I…" Danny stammered. "Sure, I suppose. I'm… yes, I can see this happening, but—"

"Do both arms," she interrupted.

"What?"

"I want to match. Cut off my other arm, make 'em match. Okay?"

"Er…"

"That's an order, Dr. Brooks!" Max snapped. "But not both eyes. I want one normal eye, one cyborg eye." She turned to me suddenly. "Hey, Fang, I bet the word 'cyborg' comes from 'cybernetic organism'."

"That just occur to you, did it?" I grumbled. She was being way too jovial about this. Could she have gotten herself torn to pieces on purpose?

"Fang…" she said. "This is important to me. Here's my primary concern—I don't want these parts to look real. Okay, Fang? Okay, Danny? I don't want to be, like, freaking, Luke Skywalker, with his perfectly realistic new hand. You have to look at me and know I'm half-person, half-machine. Well, and half-bird."

"Well, okay, I…" Danny began.

"Yeah, I know, that's too many halves. Shut up. Just… just have fun with it, okay Danny?"

"I wasn't going to say…" Danny paused, then sighed. "Very well, Max. I'll put you under immediately and begin the procedure."

"Immediately?" I demanded.

Danny turned and smiled at me. I assume he did, anyway, since his mouth is between his arms. "You don't think I'm ready for this? I've been designing cyborgs since I was nine years old."

"Oh, right _on_," Max said. "Okay, Fang—you know what to do, right? While I'm getting this done, you're in charge, you've got everything?"

"Sure, Max," I said.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

I knew what Max's agenda was. I had everyone x-rayed, trying to locate the chip that had led the Erasers to find us. I had expirations dates removed on Imogen's flock. Jeb had no explanation for the size of Imogen's ears, but he said he knew how to deal with it. He could come up with a solution, but that'd take time.

Not enough to occupy my time while Danny turned my Max into a monstrosity.

Danny is an entire surgical team by himself. With his quick calculations, cunning aim, using six tools all at once… I had no rational reason to fear for her. But I did anyway. Because for all his brilliance, Danny was taking too long.

I paced up and down _Needlenose II_. I thought about contacting my mother. No answer on her Skype. What the hell is she doing? She has no obligations. She could at least be around when I've gotta talk to somebody.

So that's all there was to do. Pace.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Finally, Danny entered the main cabin of the plane. "Hey, kids," he said. "Max might wake up soon. Fang, I assume you'll be wanting to see each other."

I shoved past him, and there was Max on a comfortable bed.

Both of her arms were cut off right at the shoulder. They had been replaced by gray-black skeletal metal and bone-white ivory. Her hands were fairly normal, jointed, but the tips of her fingers were sharp-edged.

Over her right eye was a square patch of the same dark iron as the arms. And as her normal, chocolate-liqueur-brown eye opened and blinked, the patch expanded in all directions, revealing a socket filled with golden light.

"Fang," she said quietly.

"Hi, Max," I said.

"Oh, Fang… I love you," she said.

"Yeah, I know," I said.

"No, I really, really love you," Max said. "Sooooo… much."

As she said it, she spread her arms. They extended on coils, filling the room wall-to-wall.

My vision blurred. "Still you, aren't you, Max?"

She withdrew her arms. "Yeah, I suppose I am." She wiggled her fingers. "Look at these fingers, that's awesome."

"How do you feel?" I asked.

"Absolutely great," she replied. "So strong… and so happy… and so in love…"

"Really?" I said. "Is that normal for cyborgs?"

"I don't know," Max admitted. "It doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But that's how I feel."

"That's a relief," I said. "I was worried, maybe as a machine, you wouldn't… you wouldn't love me."

She raised an eyebrow. "Is that a real concern for you? Ever?"

"Every damn day, Max," I said.

She laughed, then sighed. "Yeah, for me too. But I'm on such a buzz right now, Fang. These kids—I'm gonna protect their brains off."

"That's _not_ all you're good for," I reminded her.

She stared at me.

"It's weird," she said. "It's like with this new eye I can see you so much more clearly. It's a good look for you. You couldn't _be_ more beautiful."

"And you're more Max-like than ever," I agreed. "Powerful and unyielding…"

"You wanna make love, Fang?" Max asked.

"Honestly? Yeah. Seeing you so happy like this…"

Max wrapped her arms around me and pulled me straight onto her face. She felt around my mouth with her tongue.

"New teeth?" she said, surprised.

"Yup," I said. I opened wide. "Marble." I'd replaced the six teeth that Lang and Shey had ripped out with perfectly-shaped replicas with swirling black-and-white patterns. I'd let Max inspire me as far as could be—I wanted everybody who looked at me to know I had fake teeth.

"That's great," she said. "So, let's… let's enjoy this. Okay?"

We must have kissed for hours, and it could have gone on for many hours more if… you know, if I wasn't a _guy_.

Max and I were once again whole. Physically—and the flock was whole again too. Ready for war… ready for victory.


	22. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

I remembered a time, some seven years ago, when little toddler Angel had been doing some nightmarish stuff. Messing with Jeb's printer and eating spools of thread… we were all really mad at her, but the worst came when she started messing with Gazzy's room… tearing up all his books, stealing his toys, breaking all his favorite movies and games.

We all thought that little five-year-old Gazzy would be furious enough to tear up the entire house, and so he was. But when the time came around and Jeb was handing Angel a simple punishment, Gazzy threw himself in front of her, and refused to let any privileges or items be stripped from her.

"My she-she," he'd called her, as he'd spoken with a light lisp at that age. I was eleven, and I think that was the moment I knew, flock equals family. Didn't matter what happened, we stood together. And that bond of blood that Gazzy and Angel shared made them even stronger than the rest of us.

I scratched Fang's head with my new steel-and-iron claws. Half-asleep after I'd drained him like a vampire, he was almost purring at my touch.

"Let's go show the others," I said.

"Who?" Fang said. "Others? Oh, crap."

"Yeah, I forgot about them in all the groping," I said, laughing. I tugged on a tank top and jacket. Fang and I were still holding hands as we left for the main cabin of the plane… I'd been afraid he'd mind the fact that my hands were essentially edged weapons now, but he had confidence that I knew how to handle them.

And I did know. All of the features of my new arms, I knew them as well as I'd known my first pair of arms. Downloaded straight into my brain, like they do with fast-grow clones like Max II and Kellie. All the flat edges, blunt sides, and sharp hooks that could be employed for various combat maneuvers—I knew where they all were, and I could work out how to fight with them. The various gases that could shoot from my palms? As easy as singing "Where is Thumbkin".

We rejoined the flock. "Hey, Coldstone," Max II said. "And your much more attractive mate, Coldfire."

Fang rolled his eyes. "Will you please, Tooey, lay off on the _Gargoyles_ references? Nobody will _ever_ get it."

"You seem to," she challenged.

Fang didn't rise to the bait.

"Mommy…" Airy breathed. "You're so _beautiful_!" She leapt into my arms, and I held her delicately.

"How do you feel, Max?" Gazzy asked.

"Kick-ass," I said. "Like I could wrestle a grizzly bear, you know?"

"Awesome," Nudge said. "Oh, I bet nobody stands a chance against you now. You could, like, rip people's arms off, and throw 'em over your head no matter how heavy they are."

"Oh, for sure," Angel said. "Nobody can get you, not the torturer or the Director or Kellie or—"

"Bathroom break," Nudge said abruptly. She stood up and methodically entered the bathroom.

"What the frack?" Iggy said.

There was rattling from within the bathroom, and Nudge quickly emerged, adjusting her clothes and slamming the door firmly behind herself.

"That was odd…" I offered.

"Odd? Ah, no," Nudge said. "I'm okay. Just a quick bathroom break."

Fang shrugged. "Well, anyway. Angel, how are you liking Netflix on the Wii?"

"Oh, it's super-awesome," Angel said. "I caught an episode of _Mystery Science Theatre 3000_, gotta say—funny."

A look of understanding passed between them. Are they speaking in code? What the hell kind of code is that?

I heard a ticking. Was something wrong with the plane's engine?

Nudge flinched. "Ooh, not now!"

"Not now, what?" Angel said. "Something going on with… _the clicks_?"

The handle of the bathroom door jiggled, and Nudge pounded it with a fist. It went silent.

"Who's in there?" I asked.

"Nobody," Nudge said. "Um, so, who wants to talk about lipstick and stuff? 'Cause there have been a lot of changes in that… department. For a while. Unless somebody wants to do something else, like try on new shoes or something. What do you say?"

"I'd say you're trying too hard, 'Nudge'," I said. "Say, Nudge, what's the secret word?"

"Ah… which secret word?"

"The one we worked out in Germany four years ago to make sure that none of us is, oh, I don't know, a shapeshifting impostor."

"Oh, yeah, that secret word," Nudge said. "The secret word is—"

I can't quite articulate what she said, but it wasn't the secret word. It was more of an earth-shattering wail that knocked us all off our feet.

When my head cleared, all I could hear was a steady ticking, like a clock… or an explosive. I got to my feet.

"Not my fault," Nudge objected. The ticking grew louder, and she clutched her head. "It's not! You left me so unprepared… but fine, I'll do what I can… heeeeeeeeeere's KELLIE!"

Kellie-as-Nudge twirled around and popped out as her true form. She instantly opened her mouth and shot poison out of the sacs behind her incisors. Jax and Falon dodged it and rolled toward Kellie, showing remarkable coordination with one another. They launched a double-kick to Kellie's shins, but she took a single step back and their kicks fell short.

Kellie took a great big swipe at Sean, but I miraculously deflected the blow with my metal hand. Just like that. Kellie turned to me and took a few steps closer.

I'd always had only-slightly-less-than-raptor-vision; it worked out pretty good for me. I couldn't see individual letters on a page from across a field, but I could locate a target or a person… but with my new (dun-da-dun!) golden eye, I could see individual blades of a fan as it swept around and around. And I could see each subtle nuance of Kellie the Unholy Assassin's movements.

Kellie was aiming for me, I could see that. I extended my fingers to their full three-foot length. I could move each and every one of my fingers with perfect precision and flexibility—basically, I was wielding ten lethal Italian scimitars simultaneously. I moved my fingers in a holding pattern between myself and Kellie, and she couldn't find an opening. As the clickety-clickety noise that followed Kellie around grew louder and her eyes burned red with fury, she took a chance at coming at me and wound up with some nasty cuts on her fingers.

Kellie backed away and quickly did a loop around me to kick me in the back. Her bare foot nicked me as I tried to keep the even ground. My claws got the bottoms of her feet, but her toenails made a horrid scraping sound against my palms.

My hands were up too high to defend. Kellie could have gone straight for my heart—and with those granite-hard nails, she probably could have gotten it right out.

But then, Nudge tumbled out of the bathroom. She'd finally managed to get the latch open, but Kellie appeared to have disabled her. Nevertheless, her arrival managed to distract Kellie for a single instant—long enough for me to grab her by the wrists and clamp on tight, withdrawing my fingers to their normal finger-like length.

Kellie struggled, her feet moving rapidly enough to completely incinerate the rug. She drove a knee into my chest, and I heaved and nearly toppled over. I regained my balance soon enough to slam her against the wall of the plane. I dug my claws in, effectively shackling her a few inches off the ground.

"No!" Kellie screeched. "No! No! No!"

She keened, stunning me, but my grip on the wall was too tight to be shaken loose. She spat venom at me, but I managed to curl my head away before it got into my eyes. My cheek sizzled, but I didn't let go. Kellie had no defense for my trap.

"Stop struggling and it won't hurt so much," I told her gently.

Kellie snarled at me. "It's not _you_! It's the clicks…"

I glared. "And what do the clicks do, Kellie?"

"It's Mommy telling me what to do," Kellie said. "They hurt, and when I fail they hurt _mooooooore_…" The clicks accelerated, and tears filled Kellie's eyes.

"What's Mommy want you to do?" I asked.

"Take you…" she muttered. "Kill the fodder, but take the flock… Headmaster wants you…"

"Headmaster?" I repeated. "Who is Headmaster? And who are the fodder?"

Kellie whined. "Kill me now! The clicks… hurt… so damn much…"

"What makes the clicks stop?"

"Nothing," Kellie rasped. "Nothing. Only go away if I take you, and I can't take you anymore! I'm trapped!"

"Do it, Max," Jeb said. "Kill her now."

I turned my head to look at him. "You really think I should, Jeb?"

"Yes," Jeb said.

"Well, I'm convinced, then, that killing her will be such a bad idea it's not even worth considering."

Jeb scowled.

"You want her dead?" I said.

"It needs to happen," Jeb said.

"It occurs to me that you're testing me, but it doesn't matter either way. I can't kill Kellie." I turned to Kellie and released one of her wrists so I could touch her face. Gently.

"I can't kill you," I repeated quietly. "You're my she-she."

Gazzy's eyes sparkled. He knew what I was talking about. Angel briefly looked confused, then she must have recalled the incident (or else picked it out of somebody else's head) because her face lit up brilliantly.

Nice to have their support. Cute kids, those two. Make me feel good.

Jeb apparently also remembered the story. His face went dark… I hadn't seen him so furious… had I ever? No, he never came close.

"Your merciful nature is taking a wrong turn, Max," Jeb said. "Kellie cannot be redeemed."

"No," I said. "Janssen can't be redeemed. The School can't be redeemed. Whatever dumb fucker had the idea to make Erasers out of somebody's little kids can't be redeemed. Kellie…"

"Kellie's no different from them," Jeb said.

"She's _much_ different," I said. "She doesn't know anything but what she's permitted. We can tell her… but I can't hurt her. She's mine. My she-she."

"She-she?" Kellie demanded. "What does that mean?"

I stared at her, then released both of her arms. "I think it means that, in spite of everything, I love you, Kellie."

Kellie looked bewildered, then pleased, until the clicks began again. At that point, she ran away, opened the outside door of the plane with remarkable gentleness, and did a swan dive into the open air.

I ran after her, clutching the edges of the plane. We were flying low. I was prepared to dive and catch Kellie, but she now had flaps of thin skin spreading from her wrists to her ankles, slowing her fall as she sank into a great black circle that I knew was the freaking Survivor base.

"She-she," I muttered. That's how I felt about her. Like she was a baby, and I was her not-much-older mentor…

Finally I shut the door, putting the ear-whipping wind behind me.

"Why is she always around for such a short amount of time?" Gazzy wondered. "She just zips in and out."

I turned to Jeb. "What's your gripe with her? She's your genetic makeup, she's your kid. Why do you hate her so much?"

Jeb laughed bitterly. "In my tenure at the School, I gave them every kind of tissue I possessed to use as they like. If that's the reasoning you're going after, a lot of the terrible creatures in the world are my children. I have no regard for flesh and blood. My children are something more than that to me, and truly I've only had two: Ari Batchelder, and _you_, Maximum Ride."

I stared at him. "So, what _is_ a child to you? Someone you've raised? Someone who depended on you, who you put before everything else? Well, in that case… you haven't had _one_."

Jeb fumed and stormed off.

"Wow, you really wounded him," Nudge said, getting to her feet. "He _really_ doesn't like Kellie, does he?"

I laughed. "I know, right? We _need_ to turn her. I can't wait to see his reaction to _that_."

But the humor couldn't remain in the situation for long. I leaned against the wall. "Oh, Kellie," I muttered. "Please come back to me."


	23. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

"Does everyone… does everyone understand?" Danny said gently.

Albert, Felicia, Ray, and Ram stared at him blankly.

"That's what the Heartbeat does?" Felicia asked. "Who would _do_ such a thing?"

"Most people," Danny replied. "It's tragic, but… yeah. Most people."

"This is huge," Ram muttered. "I mean…"

"I realize what I'm asking," Danny said. "And it's fine. It will work fine if it's only me."

"Nah, you made it pretty clear that's _not_ the case," Ray said. "Heck, I'll do it. I'm… I'm done with all this. I'm ready for something to happen, finally."

Albert turned to Felicia. They didn't exchange a word, but saw in each other's eyes that it was time.

"We agree," Albert said. "We couldn't ask this of somebody else. It has to be all five of…" Albert paused and turned to Ram, realizing he hadn't agreed yet.

Ram rolled a shoulder noncommitally. "Hey… every day's a good day to die."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The five of them set the blue cube in the center of the plane's main cabin.

"What's this?" Max asked.

"They call it the Heartbeat," Danny said. "The Big Guy was made to design it many years ago. It's a great weapon. The Big Guy was a bit afraid of it, so he tossed in as many chinks as he could. But Tran Industries has worked their way around it. We had to steal it… and pray that nobody can recreate it. Now, there remains only one obstacle remaining before the flock can put it to use."

"Us?" Max demanded. "Why… why do we… what is this weapon?"

"It can't be trusted in anybody else's hands," Danny said. "I've always felt that you're very good. And… well… just promise me you'll take care of it."

"What—?" Max began.

The Heartbeat opened up, and ten small wires emerged.

"It needs to be activated," Danny said. "The Big Guy perfected a piece of technology that he implemented into the Heartbeat, as part of making it more difficult to use. But it's nevertheless remarkable. It runs off the electricity generated by a creature's life force."

"Life force?" Max said quietly.

"Yes. Electric impulses in the brain and the heart… think about it. If you could harness that energy, take my word for it—this weapon would run _forever_."

"How is it harnessed?" Max demanded.

Danny paused briefly. "Do you still have… need of us?"

"Of course we do," Max said. "We need you a lot, Danny. All of you, you're like family. And I've been thinking about maybe you could cut off my legs, do the same thing as you did to my arms, 'cause I like the arms. Not my wings, though. I want my wings to stay organic."

"Max, take it easy," Fang said. "You ever hear of an addiction to cosmetic procedures? You don't want an addiction to cybernetic enhancements."

Max laughed. "Hey, I can stop anytime. But, Danny, seriously, what… what _is_ this activation of the life force thing? I'm freaking out."

Danny pressed two of the wires into his heart. "Thankfully, there's some correlation between the Big Guy's inventions. You see, we're not like other mutants. Not a simple DNA grafting—full-out molding of ourselves and the animals. Meaning, each of us has two life-forces. So the five of us have agreed to supply our life-forces for the activation."

The others inserted two wires each into their hearts. "See, it needs ten," Ram said. "Five lives with a return of ten? That's a bargain. Works out well."

"Five lives?" Max demanded. "Wait, you're all going to—"

Danny pressed an invisible button on the Heartbeat. Instantly, five shapes came forward—a wandering albatross, a reticulated python, a Nubian ibex, a spotted eagle ray, and a giant octopus. As they came closer, they began to wither and become older, before finally vanishing with a sharp crack.

"Wait," Max said. "That wasn't them…" Max gasped as she saw what still remained hooked up to the machine. There, wearing clothes that were suddenly much too big for them, were five humans.

"Hold on!" Danny cried. "We've got this."

Two identical, well-muscled seventeen-year-old boys stepped forward.

"See ya 'round, bro," said Noah.

"Later days," Laren agreed solemnly.

They withered and disappeared. Danny followed.

Albert and Felicia came last. As they grew older and grayer, they stared at each other, stared and stared and stared. In a single brief moment, they finally touched one another, and shared their very first kiss in sixteen years of love.

Finally, they vanished. The Heartbeat's hinged lid shut, and it launched out a stream of diamond dust that covered the entire flock.

Sean's knees buckled, and Max II grabbed his hand. "What the hell?" she muttered.

From the Heartbeat came the worn but powerful voice of Pablo Rodriguez. "So, you've made your sacrifices, and activated the Heartbeat. The device shall continue to be in perfect use for the next thousand years or your money back. Use it well. God help us all."

It went silent. "What does this do?" Max demanded. "I don't get it. They all committed suicide to power it, and don't even tell us what the frack we're supposed to do with it?"

Jeb picked up the Heartbeat and handed it to Max. "Anything you want," he said solemnly. "It's guided by your thoughts, and you can build anything you like from it."

Max stared at it. "I… I don't get it. I don't want it! This isn't… I can't."

Nudge took the Heartbeat. "The guys gave their lives. We have to use it to honor them." She held it up. "Let me hang onto it. I'll figure it out."


	24. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

I tapped my claws against _Needlenose II_'s control panel. It was Akana's turn to pilot. Evidently, _Needlenose II_ wasn't made for cruising altitude, and we were taking it slow. We weren't even at the Atlantic Ocean yet.

"You know, I'm not so worthless," Akana said.

"Oh?" I said.

"Yeah," she said. "Dr. Martinez picked me. She knew I could deliver. I mean, she really loves you, she wants the best for you."

"Yeah, I know," I said.

"And, apparently, she thought that was me. So, I mean, I hope you can trust me more."

"Eh."

"You trust Dr. Dwyer," Dr. Akana objected. "And she's off her noggin."

"It's an ipso facto thing. Fang loves Brigid, so I… well, hey, we don't have to get into it. If Mom recommended you, I got no problem with it."

Akana sighed. "Must be nice to trust people unconditionally. I wish I knew anybody I could feel that way about."

I leaned forward, looking out the windshield of the plane. "Hey, Doc, you see that?"

She looked ahead. "Um, a bit. Not really. What is it?"

"Locusts," I replied. "Huh, pretty neat. Never mind, it's nothing."

I immediately took that back, as the cloud of locusts parted, revealing a figure in a black shroud, holding a scythe in a single furry talon.

"There's the guy," I said darkly. "Who the hell is that?"

_I am Headmaster,_ he hissed in a highly hostile version of the Voice. _Come here to me, Maximum Ride…_

I backed away, making deadly fists. "Come after me, then," I countered.

Headmaster lifted his scythe over his head and smashed in the plane windshield. Dr. Akana screamed hysterically and covered her head. I extended my claws (for the record, that process does not at all resemble Wolverine) and advanced on Headmaster, as he stepped off his cloud of locusts and brushed himself off.

"What do you want?" I snarled.

_You,_ he replied. _I want to hold your heart in my hand and use you as a weapon for takeover…_

I mulled that over. "In that order? Well, I see you're out of your mind," I said. "Right on."

Headmaster twirled and kicked me in the chest. I braced myself and countered with a slash of my claws, which was intercepted by the scythe.

I heard a loud flapping. I looked over Headmaster's shoulder. Akana had gone back to the plane's controls, but the crazy wind was whipping in her face, making it hard for her to hold her ground.

In front of her, though, was Keegan surfing on a crowd of monarch butterflies. "What is this?" Keegan demanded. "I've found you. Why are you blocking me?"

_Step away, frail mutant, _Headmaster said. _I have business._

"Don't call me frail," Keegan said. "I can do anything."

Headmaster turned around. I took a slash at him, but my fingers bent backwards before reaching him.

_Why, it's you,_ Headmaster said. _The greatest of the Enhanced Children._

"What are you doing to my powers?" Keegan demanded. "Tell me the answer!"

_Oh, I'm not blocking you,_ Headmaster said with a chuckle. _I'm blocking everyone. Don't take it personally. I see you now. I see you, Keegan. You're just like me._

"I'll never be like you," Keegan snapped. "I'm good! You run the Survivors, don't you?"

_But you're exactly like me,_ Headmaster replied. _I see your life and all things in it, now why would you, the all-powerful goddess Keegan Beck, content yourself with living in a little cottage with your high school boyfriend? I think I'm doing much better things with my power._

Keegan blinked and squinted at Headmaster. "Monte?" she said quietly.

_You squandered your omnipotence,_ Headmaster said. _I'm much more powerful than you are. Give up now._

"No!" Keegan said. "No, you stop this! Don't hurt my friend Max!"

_I won't,_ he responded. _I'll kill her quite painlessly once she's served my purpose. But you? You, I would never kill. You are far too much like me…_

Keegan stared hard at Headmaster and nothing happened. Then she did something I'd never seen her do—she drew back a fist to punch Headmaster in his shrouded face. He deflected it with his scythe, then lifted his hands.

_Feel my wrath, Keegan Beck, and know what you could TRULY be!_ Headmaster wailed.

Keegan smushed a snowball into Headmaster's face, and he stumbled.

"I know what I can be," Keegan said. "I can be the person who killed you."

Headmaster vanished in a cloud of acrid gray smoke. It got in my face, and I started hacking.

"Keegs?" I rasped. "Did you kill him?"

"No," Keegan said. "No, I didn't do anything. He's gone… he'll come back. And there's nothing I can do about it."

"He's… he's all-powerful like you?" I said quietly.

"Uh-huh," Keegan whispered.

The other passengers of the plane burst into the cockpit as the plane started to sputter and drop.

"The plane's going down!" Dr. Akana yelled.

"There's nothing I can do about it," Keegan sobbed. "You're going down…"

"Keegan," Jeb said. "You need not be weak."

Keegan turned to Jeb, then backed away. "No! You stay away from me! You're not right! You're… you're emptiness! Nothingness! You stay away, emptiness! Max, don't trust this—" She vanished in a shimmering rainbow.

The plane scraped the ground, and Dr. Akana braked.

"The plane is busted," Akana muttered. "And is anyone alive?"

"Everyone is," Mom said. "You're okay, Noelani. I'm proud of you. Ella, Brigid, come to me. Max, get the flock out of here. They could come back."

"I won't leave you unprotected!" I said.

"Come back to us once _you_ are safe," Mom said firmly. "You're the ones who matter."

I nodded to her, then pointed to Jeb. "Keep an eye on him."

"I will," she said. "Here, take the Heartbeat."

She tossed it to me, and I caught it. "I don't know how—"

"Oh, gimme that," Nudge said, snatching it from me. "Cell? Where's the Cell? Have we lost it?"

"NNNNNNNNUDDDDDDGGE…" came a grumble from beneath a bit of plane-rubble. I picked it up and lifted the light cube.

"We got you, little guy," I said. "Okay, everybody with wings, we're out of here."


	25. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

"Okay," Max said, "everybody with wings, we're out of here."

She took off, closely followed by Fang. Then Nudge and Iggy, and Gazzy and Angel, Imogen and Sean, Jax and Falon.

Airy fluttered above me and ruffled my hair. "Come on, Auntie Max," she said.

Yep, it's me. Remember when I penned those chapters in the second book? Didn't that freak you out? That's what I was going for.

I pushed off and gathered into the final tip of our formation—it makes a ton of people flying together a lot easier. Having never flown with anybody before, I'd never known that.

"Tooey," Sean called. "Get in position."

"I _am_ in position," I said.

"No, ye're not," he said. "I've been flyin' since I was five, I know what a formation looks like." He smirked.

"Dude, I'm five years old _now_, and I bet I know more about real life than you ever will," I told him.

"I'd say I've learned a couple o' things lately," he countered. "Ye ever had two broken legs?" He tapped his knees. He was completely healed.

"No," I said.

"I'm thinkin' that's part of makin' me a man, aye?" Sean said. He looked me over.

"What are you lookin' at?" I wondered.

"Nothin', just… good thing for me ye don't _look_ five years old."

I stumbled in the air. "Oh, dude, that's just wrong."

"Now we know how we keep getting found," Nudge said.

"How's that?" Gazzy asked.

"There's no tracking devices on any of us. Headmaster can do anything, just like Keegan. He can find us whenever he wants."

"Then if he wants us, why doesn't he just _take_ us?" Gazzy wondered.

No one had an answer to that.

"You know what I'm thinking?" Iggy said.

"Sup?" Max muttered.

"Putting some pieces together," Iggy said. "Let's rewind. Okay, four years ago, Jeb does the Voice. I wasn't there, but I'm given to understand that that's impossible. We good so far?"

"Sure," Max agreed.

"Okay! And then we find out that Headmaster also uses the Voice. Right?"

"Well, I always knew that," Nudge offered.

"Well, sure. Now, Jeb has always been immune to Angel's powers. And Headmaster—just as powerful as Keegan, can counteract her. And on top of that, Keegan's always trusted Jeb, and then suddenly he pops out and she's terrified."

Max led us to a comfortable clearing, and we all set down, staring at Iggy.

"Come on, we're twelve very smart people," Iggy said. "Well, thirteen—sorry, Cell. You got me? What kind of schnooks do they take us for? Headmaster and Jeb are the same dude!"

Max sighed and snipped some stray hairs out of her eyes with her razor fingers. "We follow your logic, Iggy, but I don't know if that's right. Headmaster wants to kill me. I don't know what the hell Jeb wants, but he doesn't want me to die."

"You sure?" Angel said. "Maybe he uses Headmaster for his real desires, while 'Jeb' is an undercover bit."

"Or," Fang offered, "maybe Headmaster is an act—pretending to want to kill you as a test. Confident that no matter how hard he tries, or pretends to try, you'll be strong enough to keep away."

Sean turned to me. "They're kiddin', right?"

"'Fraid not," Iggy said. "Fact is, that's a lot less convoluted than some of the stuff Jeb's thrown at us. Well… at her." He pointed to Max.

"Yeah," Max agreed. "Take Max here." She pointed to me.

"Tooey," I corrected her.

"I told you, I don't like that. Anyway, they sent Max out here, they tell _her_ she's here to replace me, they tell _me_ I have to kill her. And I for one still think it came out exactly the way they wanted it to."

"You mean, with you sparing me?" I said.

"Yeah."

Sean smiled. "Well, I'm glad ye did."

I stared. "What in the hell are you doing? Stop hitting on me, you punk."

He backed away. "Just flirtin'," he said quietly. "I do it t' everybody."

"Tooey, be kind to me brother," Imogen said.

Right. I didn't want to offend Imogen, but damn, Sean was some kind of irritating.

"Immy, your teeth," Max said suddenly.

Imogen felt her teeth. They were all needle sharp, perfect for catching bugs or scraping up fruits or whatever it is bats do.

"Damnation," Imogen breathed. "I'm scared. Can we get this fixed?"

"Maybe," Max said. "I don't know about putting you in Jeb's hands anymore, though. After Keegan freaked out about him…"

"I think the ears and the teeth are sexy," I offered.

"I want it t' go away," Imogen murmured.

"But I still don't think Jeb is Headmaster," Max said. "Keegan called him 'Monte'. Keegan!"

Keegan appeared. I still wasn't used to her! And she never spoke to anyone but Max. I didn't like that favoritism. I mean, we're all here.

"Keegs, you okay?" Max said gently.

"I dunno," Keegan muttered. "Headmaster freaks me out. I never knew there was someone out there like me."

"Do you know a Monte?" Max asked.

Keegan looked up, surprised. "Yeah. Monte Beck, my father. Why?"

"Headmaster told you that you were squandering your gifts, and you called him Monte."

"Did I?" Keegan said. "I… I don't even remember that. No, Monte can't be Headmaster."

"Where is your dad?" Max asked.

"I… huh. I don't know. I haven't thought about him once, since… oh, God. But he's not Headmaster! That's not possible."

"Keeg… Keegan!" Max said loudly. "You've gotten yourself pretty fried, Keeg. Maybe you should go to sleep."

Keegan nodded. "Okay," she muttered. "Thanks, Max. I'm gonna go to sleep…"

She vanished. No sound, no imagery, not even fading. She was just gone. I guess she was too tired for her usual CGI.

"Come on," Max said. "Let's find a town with a hotel for everybody on _Needlenose II_. Then we'll keep better watch over them."

Everybody went flying again. "Hey, Max," Max said. "You okay?"

"Me?" I said. "Yeah, I'm fine. Why?"

"Nothing. Just, this isn't what you signed up for. Things were pretty good for a second, and you pretty much missed that. I hope you get what's coming to you, what you've always wanted."

"I think we all deserve whatever we want," I said.

"Yeah," Max agreed. "Just saying, I hope you do."

I didn't know what the hell she was talking about. I think I liked her better when she was a sarcastic bitch.

Nah, I liked her either way, actually. This was _exactly_ what I'd signed up for. A sister.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

Keegan collapsed onto her bed, slumped and upset.

"Keegan?" Niles asked quietly.

She turned to him. "I don't know what to do, Niles. How can they fight Headmaster without me? And how do I fight something with the exact same powers as me?"

"You ever hear of 'perception is reality'?" Niles said.

Keegan looked up blankly.

"With this kind of power, limited only by imagination?" Niles said. "If you believe that he's more powerful than you, he will be. But if you believe you can defeat him…"

"I don't get it, Niles," Keegan muttered.

"You've got to think faster than him!" Niles said. "You've got to have a better imagination! He comes at you with the scythe, you block it with a shield and wail on him with a hammer. He makes himself huge? You be even bigger, big enough to crush him underfoot. If he says to you, 'I am the most powerful thing in the universe', you say, 'I'm much greater'."

Keegan gave Niles a hug. "Thanks, Niles," she said. "I wouldn't have thought of that. You're brilliant."

"Marry me, Keegan?" Niles muttered quietly.

She sighed. "Not now, Niles. I want to find my parents."

"Hmm?"

"My parents! What if Monte Beck really is Headmaster? I have to find out."

"Your dad?" Niles said. "Well… where is he? When was the last time you saw him?"

A tear flowed from Keegan's eye. "I have no idea! After I found you, and Max, I completely forgot about my parents. Oh my God, I am such an awful person! What could my parents think of me? It's been three years since I even…" Keegan curled up and started bawling. "Oh, God, Monte, I'm sorry… and Chrissie, oh, what have I done to you…"

Niles held her tightly. "You call your parents by their first names?"

"That's the way they wanted it. Oh, God…"

"Keegan, you're _not_ a bad person," he said. "You've been a wonderful friend to Max, and… I can't even begin to describe what you are to me."

She looked up at him. "It's not right. It's not right! There's more to life than just two people. What about the rest of Max's family? I _never_ talk to them, they probably don't even _like_ me. …I'm such a geek. Headmaster's right, I've wasted my life."

"Come on, let's track down your parents," Niles whispered. "I bet they'll be so glad to see you… even if your dad _is_ Headmaster."

Keegan giggled through her tears.

"It's never too late," Niles said. "I still love you. Max still loves you. I bet your parents still love you. We have a lot of life left… exactly as much as you want, am I right?"

She held him tightly. "You're so wonderful, Niles."

"Your handiwork."

"I do wanna marry you, Niles. Just not now."

The two of them slow-danced together for several hours. Nothing could have stopped them.


	27. Chapter 27

**Chapter 27**

Jewel fumbled with an electrical plug. "Freakin'…" he muttered. He finally managed to stick it into his wrist, which began to power up.

He unplugged it almost instantly. "No point," he sighed.

Lao Hu stirred in her sleep and sighed audibly. "Oh, my raven," Jewel whispered. He ran his fingers through her hair, noticing that she had gone white in a number of places. "You _have_ to be queen. I can't wait any longer." He caressed her face and slid out of bed, as she gave another feathery sigh.

Lang and Shey were pacing around the central hall of the Survivor's tower, around a crowd of various soldiers, some human, but mostly mutated. Jewel had learned the names of the various types. A troupe of Erasers Classic, powerful men and women with honey-sweet voices who could easily morph into fierce, uncontrollable beasts. The Torturers, eight feet tall and just as broad, with milky eyes and corded muscles. Shifters, gorgeous women who could change their skin color and temperature to be nigh undetectable. Flame Guards, appearing inconspicuously human but for their retractable pterosaur wings, and the ability to mix gases in their lungs to literally breathe fire. The Erasers supplied by the School in London had all been wiped out, but a new batch would be coming in.

"Hey, everybody, it's Drool!" Lang bellowed.

Jewel cranked out his middle finger, which sparked with electricity.

"Aw, Jewel flipped me off!" Lang jeered. "Careful, don't make Jewel mad. You'll see him, you know… SPARKLE."

The crowd surrounding him laughed.

"Yo, yo, yo, yo," Shey said. "We've been talking to Headmaster. You ever seen Headmaster?"

"No, Shey," Jewel said tiredly.

"Oh, he loves us," Shey said. "He says to us, 'Oh, siblings Liu, you are so attractive and powerful. I wish I was more like _you_, instead of being a useless, unmoving piece of shit, like Jewel'."

"He did not say that," Jewel said.

"He was thinking it!" Lang said. "Were you in bed with Lao Hu just now? You do anything for her? HA-HA-HA! How does that even work?"

"Well, he shoots pulses of electricity," Shey said. "You know… down there. Tee-hee."

"HA-HA-HA! Lovin' it, lovin' it. Hey, if Lao Hu ever wants to spice things up, maybe she can zap you back."

"You hear that sound, Jewel?" Shey offered. "That's Kellie getting off to a picture of you. And her hands move so fast, you can hear it, chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga-chugga, flap-flap-flap-flap-flap."

"Yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, you know what gets Jewel off? Jewel."

Jewel clenched his fists.

"He tapes himself with Lao Hu, and watches it, like, 'Wow, my crow, look at you. No, look at ME!"

"I call her my 'raven'," Jewel snapped.

"The crowd doesn't care," Lang said. "The crowd likes us!"

"Yeah?" Jewel said. "Well, you're a couple of hideous, disgusting monsters now. How are you going to get laid like you used to?"

"We're not monsters," Shey said, pouting sarcastically. "Look at my profile. I still have the same gorgeous face I always did. I _needed_ these mutations."

"Not mutations," Lang mused. "We're _temptations_. HA-HA-HA! Oh, I'm good."

Shey jumped in the air and perched on the shoulders of two Erasers. "You know, I didn't think I'd like Erasers Classic, but when you're unmorphed, hot damn… I do! I do like it!"

"Yeah?" one of them said. "Well, we Erasers think you're really pretty too."

"Aw, that's sweet. Say more words about me. You have a name?"

"No."

"Even better. Come along, now. Covered in feathers or not, I'm still the same woman with the same needs. Need somebody to nibble on my tail… come on, boys. Let's go make some Shey-rasers." The Erasers chuckled evilly as Shey escorted them out. A few others males drifted behind them.

"My baby sister, everybody," Lang said. "Not that I'm judging her! Who likes dinosaurs?"

"I do!" a young girl offered.

"Well, you won't get any here," Lang admitted.

"Don't you have dinosaur DNA?"

"There is no dinosaur DNA. I'm more of a mixed-bag." He clutched the shoulder of the girl who had spoken, and scanned the crowd. "Okay, who else wants a piece of Headmaster's favored dude?"

"Me! Me!" several female voices piped up.

"Would you look at that!" Lang said. He wagged his eyebrows at Jewel. "Maybe you picked your freak queen too early, Drool."

Jewel sighed and stomped away, trying not to listen to the jovial party cruising around behind him.

"Jerks," he muttered.

"Yeah, those two have a lot to learn," said a deep, raspy voice.

Jewel looked up, seeing a muscle-bound man with a gray buzz-cut. Jewel's first impulse was to kill him, just to release some of his tension. But he was too depressed for even that.

"You like cigars, right Jewel?" the man said, holding out a case.

"Sure," Jewel said. "Thanks, Mud." He lit the cigar with flames from within his own mouth, then helped Mud light his own.

"So, they have a lot to learn?" Jewel said. "Like you and your nephews are any better?"

Mud shrugged. "Oh, go easy on Grease and Gum. They're good boys. Grease just lives in the moment, has a hard time seeing the big picture. And Gum, well, he's too stupid to form his own opinion, he just does everything Grease does."

Jewel nodded.

"You're a good man, Jewel," Mud said. "Don't let those Lius get you down."

"I'm hardly a 'man', Mud," Jewel said.

"S'pose not, but at least you got a plan," Mud said. "This dude Headmaster that the Lius love so much? Well, I've heard you talkin', and I agree with you. He's got nothing."

"Why you here, then?"

"The boys like his money. Like I said, they don't see the big picture—not a whole lot of use for money in the future they're helping to make. Now, their father, my brother Sand? Now _there_ is a man who thinks ahead."

"Your brother _Sand_?" Jewel repeated dubiously.

"Yeah. Him and his wife quit the mercenary game a long time ago."

"I'm almost afraid to ask, what do they call his wife?"

"Glue. Why?"

"I'm leaving," Jewel said.

"Dude, dude, come back, I'm trying to talk to you," Mud insisted. "It's just a Valducci family tradition."

"Naming yourselves after substances?"

"Okay, it's stupid, but it's a family thing. Anyway, Mr. and Mrs. Sand and Glue Valducci. They quit mercenary-ing to pursue much better opportunities."

"Organized crime, I suppose?"

"No, no, it's a much grander scale than that." Mud handed Jewel a one-dollar bill and pointed to the All-Seeing Eye. "That mean anything to you?"

"Well, that's some sort of conspiracy theory, right?" Jewel said. "The Illuminati?"

"Well, nobody in the know actually calls them that, but pretty much. My brother Sand, he's part of the divison that operates this whole place." He gestured to their surroundings.

"What place?" Jewel asked. "You, um, you mean the Survivors?"

"No, man, the planet."

"So, your brother rules the world?" Jewel said skeptically. "How come I've never heard of him?"

"Well, it's not like he advertises it," Mud said. "But you're a good man, Jewel, a damn good man. You let me know when you're ready to get outta here."

"I don't work for anybody, Mud Valducci," Jewel said.

Mud backed away, smiling. "I believe that. But the Survivors, along with _them_… I'm gonna try not to get caught in the crossfire when they _ROCK THE WHOLE PLACE!_"

Mud walked away, leaving Jewel puffing on his cigar and mulling things over.


	28. Chapter 28

**Chapter 28**

Wherever it was we were, we were flying over a pretty nice neighborhood.

"Someday, we'll have places like this," Gazzy said.

"Like what?" Iggy asked.

"Dude, we're over this great place," Gazzy said. "With really big houses and huge, green lawns. Gates and big driveways."

"Oh, yeah, that paints a picture," Iggy said. "I'd love a place like that, where we can stay and be free, and nobody will ever bother us."

"I hate to break it to you two," I said, "but the only way we're ever going to be in one of these houses will be as taxidermy."

"You don't dream very big, do you, Max?" Gazzy said solemnly. "Me, I can see the whole flock at peace."

"Well, that's good, Gazzy," I said. "Because there was a time when you couldn't."

"Yeah, Gazzy, dat's real swell," said Jacqueline, swooping in from above. "Anyway, listen, I been finking. Falon—ow, ow, okay—_me_ and Falon, we been talking, we wan'ed to apologize."

"Go ahead."

"Righ' then," Jax said. "Okay, so, well, I'm sorry you fort that we were in the wrong. I for one should 'ave known from the way you acted that _you_ wouldn' like sex. So, fank you, anyway, for your performance, but, yeah—"

"JAX!" Falon shrieked. "That's no' an apology!"

"I said what I mean'," Jax said, satisfied. "Dat's all I can do."

"Ugh!" Falon snarled. "Look, I'm so sorry, Gazzy, I truly 'ave come to realize, I've done a terrible, terrible fing to you, and is all my faul', and I'm sorry, and if you could find it in your 'eart to forgive me, it'd make my life a lo' brigh'er."

Gazzy thought about that. "Nope. Can't do it."

"Wha'?" Falon demanded.

"I can't… no. I'm dead, Falon. You killed me. You see all of them?" He indicated me and Fang, Nudge and Iggy. "I'm never gonna know what they know about love. And, yeah, you've admitted it's all your fault, but that's not, fucking… not enough. You two have murdered me."

Jax tackled him. "Listen 'ere," she snapped. "You say anyfing you wan' abou' me, _pal_, but you shu' your mouf when you're talking to my sister!"

"Jax, no!" Falon shrieked.

Jax grabbed Gazzy by the throat. "Now, why don' you turn around and forgive her? Go a'ead. NOW."

"I'm not doing you any favors," Gazzy rasped.

"Hey, hey, hey!" I yelled. "Move over, Jax, this is—"

I clawed at them, but in their struggling, Gazzy ended up bleeding more than Jax, and I couldn't get them apart. I finally got a hold of Jax's arms, but she had a death grip and I had to resort to prying away one finger at a time—without actually damaging either of them. It was _not_ easy.

"Jax!" Falon screamed. "Dis isn' the way! Don' 'urt 'im!"

"I'll 'urt 'im, Falon," Jax hissed. "Gazzy, you look Falon in the eye and tell 'er is okay! Go on, tell 'er, 'Sall good, Falon, I'm jus' being a bloody baby.'"

"No," Gazzy growled.

As we spun, Gazzy holding Falon, Jax holding Gazzy, me holding Jax, there was a whistling in the air. Suddenly, Gazzy bellowed, "MOVE!" and shoved Falon away. I finally pried Jax off and went backwards with her as some sort of coconut-looking projectile sailed past and exploded in a whirl of color.

"Fireworks?" I dared to hope.

"Nope," Gazzy said. "That was aimed at us. Somebody's trying to kill us."

"What I wouldn't give to hear that and be surprised," Iggy said. "Or, better yet, not hear that ever."

A single orb of white light shot by. Gazzy grabbed Jax and Falon by the elbows and pulled them roughly in an evasive pattern.

"I hear where that came from," Iggy said. "Fang, Nudge, stick with me, I got this."

He dove downward, Fang and Nudge flanking him. I tried to see where they were going, but I had to do a roll to avoid being lasered.

"Airy!" I heard someone shriek.

I whirled. Angel whipped out a wing and buffeted Airy out of the way of another orb-blast. It grazed her, and Angel's white feathers went black. Airy turned to me and held up two triumphant fists. She was ready for battle.

"No!" Iggy yelled. "Don't land! Keep going! They've got another one! Scatter!"

I saw a big laser beam shoot straight up just as Iggy, Nudge, and everything-that-was-me hurtled in three different directions. Gazzy, still guiding the twins through the air, also had to leap out of the way. I heard screaming, and Gazzy, shocked, dropped them both.

Falon was arching her back in pain, and I saw her. Her legs, her torso, her face, were all bright red and smoking. Her front half had been enveloped in the heat blast.

"Max, take a hard right!" I heard.

As you know, when one of the guys says take a hard right, you take a hard—

Wait a minute, that wasn't a guy. That was Nudge.

I still didn't hesitate. I took the hard right, and a crackling blue orb shot past me, going downwards. I tracked its path with my golden eye, and saw that it was heading for a rooftop armed with three big guns. That made sense; the laser weapon, the balls of white light, the exploding coconuts.

The blue orb hit one weapon, then bounced into another, then the third. All three of them sizzled and went dead, and the blue orb dissipated. I saw an insignia on the roof: _Valducci Family Compound_. Right to it, eh? No Corporation, no Industry, just a good old-fashiond family compound.

I looked up. "Nudge, you did that?"

"Nope," she said. "That was the Heartbeat."

We all gathered together.

"You figured it out, huh?" I said. "That's what it's for, huh?"

"It's for anything you want it to do," Nudge said. She held the Heartbeat aloft. "Look at it, it's beautiful. In this little box, I've got every element on the periodic table, as much as I need, to produce whatever needs producing by _moi_."

"Wow," I said.

"Falon, turn this way," Nudge said.

Falon faced Nudge, who opened the box, releasing a spray of liquid on her, head to toe.

"Oh—oh—oh," Falon said. "Oh, dat's good… fanks, Nudge."

"You okay?" Gazzy said.

"Yeah," Falon said. "My burns are all soothed…"

"Good, good," Gazzy said. "That's good."

"So, who was shootin' at us?" Sean demanded.

"Valducci Family Compound," Max II said. "There's a logo."

"Valducci?" Sean repeated. "That doesn't…"

"Ring a bell for anybody?" Max II asked, looking around.

Silence.

"Apparently not," Nudge said. "Hey, you guys, check this out."

She opened the bottom of the Heartbeat, and bundles of bills tumbled out.

"What's that?" Iggy said. "Nudge, sweetie, is that money?"

"Uh-huh!" Nudge said. "It's a counterfeiting machine! Our financial problems are done."

"We have financial problems?" I said blankly.

"Not anymore!" Nudge said. "Not with the fake-money setting on the Heartbeat."

"It's a setting?"

"Well, yeah, you think I could reproduce American currency on my own? It's a feature."

"Lemme feel," Iggy said. Nudge handed a wad to him. "Oh, awesome. Tons of money, just makes me wanna…"

"Reproduce?" Nudge suggested, shrieking with giggles. "Let's go!" She took off flying, hand in hand with Iggy.

I caught them. "Go where?"

"Moving to the mall, I assume," Iggy said.

"We haven't forgotten the mission," Nudge said. "Any town with a mall probably also has a hotel for the _Needlenose II_ folks."

"Hell, with unlimited funny-money, _we_ can own a hotel."

"Boo-yah."

"Max?" Iggy said. "Unclench. This is a good thing."

I tried to relax while in mid-flight.

"Gazzy, crack her back, would you?" Iggy said.

Gazzy swooped on me, and I dodged. "Don't crack my back!" I said. "My question is, while you're all moving to the mall, what's the cyborg gonna do, huh?"

Nudge shrugged. "Guess you should have thought of that."

"Let 'em all stare at us, aye?" Imogen said. She grinned broadly, displaying her needle teeth, and whipped out her ears from where they'd been hidden behind her hair. "We're crusadin', and the world ought to know!"

"Hell yeah!" Max II said.

"Ride, party of thirteen, please!" Angel said. "WHOO!"

"We're gettin' our groove on!" Sean said.

Fang raised a fist. "YEAH!"

I scowled and beat my wings. "Any mall we find better damn well have a Wetzel's."


	29. Chapter 29

**Chapter 29**

"Tooey, catch!" Gazzy called. He tossed a couple of water balloons my way. I intercepted the first, but the rest creamed me.

It was upsetting, but it was progress. I'd been working on improving my fine motor skills—my programming during the two months it had taken to grow me to Max's age had been primarily indoctrination, and to that effect I was pretty clumsy. And during all my years in the wild, well, there wasn't a whole lot of occupational therapy there.

But this was progress. I had one balloon, which I tossed back to Gazzy. He accepted it graciously on the back of his head.

I whipped out a small coin and tried flipping it. It went above me… and I caught it. Yes! First time. "Woot!" Gazzy said. "Big improvements, dude."

"You're, er, you're good wiv 'er, Gazzy," Falon offered.

"Thanks," Gazzy said tonelessly.

"Oh, by the way, Gaz?" I said.

He turned to me, and caught my wing in his face.

"That'll be all, bro," I said.

"Down, down, down!" Nudge said excitedly. "We have our big city."

Max—the original Max, not me…well, you know that. I'm Tooey now. Anyway, Max said, "Okay, so basically we're not undercover now. We go out into the open." She removed her hooded coat, placing her cyborg arms in full view. "Nudge, I'm sure you have mall-pinpointing abilities. Take us there first."

"So, you're on board?" Nudge said.

"I'm _not_ on board, but it's more sportsmanlike to be on board than, say, to kill you all. So, yeah, let the world know we're here. That's what all of you want, right?"

"Pretty much," Nudge confirmed. "We're gonna get the word out, Max, 'cause… well, I feel like the majority of people are good, and will be on our side."

"Sure," Max said. "But if the Heartbeat can make anything, why do we need money?"

"No, no, no. I've found the 'money' setting, and it can make a pure chunk of any element, and I can put together some particle weapons, that's about it."

"That sounds like _enough_ to me, Nudge," I offered.

"That ain't enough, Tooey," Nudge countered. "There's a lot of potential to be unlocked in this thing."

At that point, we were settling down into a mall parking lot. Not a whole lot of people around… slow day? Bad mall? I really didn't know how to determine that. But Nudge has the intuition. Everybody's always known that she'd be more in place in a mall than on the run if not for the mutant-kid bit.

We waltzed right in there. Actually, I don't think any of us knows how to waltz. Maybe Imogen does, she's got the snobbiness for it. In a good way, though.

A parking lot attendant stared at us, blinking rapidly.

"That's right," Max said. "You're seeing what you're seeing. Now let us by or I think this entire city will be very sorry."

"No, no, it's okay," the attendant said, his eyes practically bulging out. "I'm just… I'm such a big fan!"

"Ooh, fans!" Angel said. "I always wanted to talk to these people, but Fang hogs 'em all."

"I bet you guys could have an interview at Comic-Con," the fan said. "Would you consider that?"

"Ooh, I _love_ Comic-Con!" Iggy said. "I always wanted to go. Max, Max, Max, let's do that!"

"Tell you what, dude," Max said to the attendant. "You show us around the mall, help us get what we need, your request will be thought about."

"What do you need?" he said instantly.

"Everything," Max said. "We're making a fresh start. Everything from underwear to ingredients for high explosives."

"Um, I don't think you can get explosives here," the guy said.

"Trust me, when you've got these two right here, you can get 'em anywhere," Max said, pointing to Gazzy and Iggy. "Anyway, what's your name, man?"

"Isaac!" the guy said proudly. "I'll help you out. And I'll keep your other fans off your back."

"We have other fans?" Max said.

"Trust me, I'm not the only one."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Nudge passed around all the cash she had printed. I wondered if it would raise any questions… but, nah, the general public probably assumed that the flock was rich already. Maybe. I wouldn't know. Either way, we've got plenty of cash, we're mutants, no one is going to ask any questions.

But Isaac had something right—we had fans.

Everybody wanted to kiss Airy, who was happy to oblige. People were all over Iggy and Gazzy and Nudge, about how cool they are. Angel got the most attention, which she loved. Maybe becuase she managed to keep a bubble of personal space around herself, which she did not extend to anybody else. Angel was happy to answer all the questions of the people who could not get closer to her than six feet.

"Fang, marry me!" a shrill voice cried.

Fang looked around, but couldn't find the source.

"It's Max!" some people cried out, pointing to me. I wasn't about to correct them, this was fun. The few who came closer noticed the actual Max… the exchange usually went something like, "Wait, which one is Max?" And I say, "She is." And they say, "I didn't know she had a twin." And I say, "Eh, more of a clone, actually."

Still glamorous. I was exciting and new to them; the public had never heard of me. I couldn't be sure whether the fact that Max had a clone or the fact that she was now a cyborg was more exciting… either way, I got to be a part of it.

But there was also some stir about the Irish flock. Nobody had any _clue_ about their existence. The difference being, they were used to getting attention. They always had.

I shuffled over to Imogen, hoping to find a bit of time in which to actually shop. She had ducked into a very dark store. I couldn't quite put my finger on the theme of the place, but Imogen looked _great_ there.

"Hey," she said.

"Hi, Imogen," I said quietly. "How are you doing?"

"Just grand," she said, examining a rather gothic shirt. "Ye think Max is just paranoid, or does stuff like this tend t' end badly for the flock?"

"Everything ends badly for them, I think," I said. "I don't know, I haven't been with them much longer than you have. But you're the other leader, you know. What's your opinion?"

"I'm for thinkin' that Nudge had it right: most people are good," she said. She looked around. "Think about it, this human race. A couple of us are gonna have to pick mates out o' that bunch, ye know."

"Mates?"

"Aye, mates. Not friends, mates, like… mates for matin' with."

"Ah."

"Yeah," she said, embarrassed. "Just sayin', there aren't so many mutants out there, but plenty o' perfectly good humans who we may very well find love with. I'm keepin' me eyes open."

I nodded along. "Yeah. Damn, I know what you mean, I… I want a boyfriend so damn much. I _need_ to find a boyfriend, like I need to find air to breathe… but enough about me. How's… I don't know. How's bisexuality going?"

"Oh, magnificent," she said, smiling. "As if findin' out who I was wasn't liberatin' enough, now I get a full view of so many people… I'm seein' things all around me, and I want to do 'em all. Boys, girls, shrubbery, I don't even care…"

I laughed, then stiffened when I saw Sean in the same shop, surrounded by a crowd of girls.

"So, you've been training in Ireland your entire life?" one girl was saying. "That's so exciting! I bet you're way stronger than anybody else in the flock."

Sean shrugged. "Eh, I don't want t' say anything t' bring them down, but… yeah, essentially."

"I bet you could beat up Fang," another offered. "Could you?"

"No way," said the first girl. "Nobody can beat Fang."

"Well, I never tried," Sean said. "But I'd happily do it for ye."

"Do you have any secret powers?"

"Ach, nothin' special, although I was designed to be remarkably gorgeous."

I rolled my eyes and turned to Imogen. "So, is that his only deal? He hits on girls?"

"Aye, he's been very flirtatious most of his life," Imogen agreed. "So ye shouldn't have taken it personally. It's sort of a bit that he does."

The gaggle of girls laughed at some dumb thing that Sean had said.

"Does he have any redeeming qualities at all?" I wondered.

"Hey," Imogen said darkly. "I like ye a lot, Tooey, but if ye talk like that about me brother, we're going t' have a problem."

"Sorry," I muttered. "I didn't mean… you know I completely treasure you and your friendship."

"Well, if ye're going t' be me friend, Sean comes with the package," Imogen said. "I'm sorry if he annoys ye, but that's the way it is."

"I know, Imogen," I said. "He just… ooh! He makes me so mad. I mean, seeing him with a ton of girls around him like that, that, that's literally invoking some sort of physiological response in me, like a burning, rising… some sort of rage?"

When I looked back at Imogen, she was stifling hysterical laughs.

"What?" I said.

She let loose, her musical laugh echoing around the entire store.

"What?" I demanded.


	30. Chapter 30

**Chapter 30**

"We'd like to check in," I said. I was holding a wad of cash and, by the way, had razor sharp steel-and-iron talons, so the bellboy didn't argue. Once negotiations were done (after about a minute) we had two whole floors almost to ourselves. Funny thing, we probably didn't need that many rooms, but we did it anyway. 'Cause we felt like it. We had counterfeit money.

"All right, everybody," I said. "We're gonna have to ferry over everybody on _Needlenose II_. Fly them from the wreckage to here; they'll each need a team of two to lift them, but some of us will have to stay here to keep an eye on our fort here at the hotel. So, six of us go, we clear out those who need the most attention: that'll be Akila, Brigid, and Noelani. After we get back, we'll send out four flockers to get Mom and Ella."

"What about Jeb?" Fang asked.

"Jeb can walk."

"Max…"

"Oh, come on, I'm kidding. Now, who are my volunteers?"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

We had the whole crew together within the hour. The demon twins went off to bed early, and Imogen and Sean followed suit. All the human-types were in dire need of sleep, understandably, and Jeb was (surprise surprise) nowhere to be found after we brought him to his room. So that left me alone with a grouping of the roughly-original flock members.

I tried to wrap my head around that, that there was now an "original flock". The flock had _doubled_. Even if we didn't particularly care for a certain duo of chippies, they were flock members. And even with Imogen's branch of the flock gone, that still left me with a bigger flock than I'd led before. Airy and Max II, and I could probably group Akila and the Cell in there. Not to mention Akila's upcoming litter. And if flock was family and family flock, that would put Mom and Ella in there too, wouldn't it? Not Jeb, though. He'd _never_ be my family. I couldn't help but think about that, though, the expansion. What if there dozens, even hundreds, of mutants out there in the world. I would lead them all. Yeah, I'd be completely up to that! But there would never be anyone as special as the five who I'd been taking care of since I could remember.

What of it, though? Why would it matter, if I was a great leader? I wasn't going to last forever. Someday, I'd be old and silver-haired, too weak to fly. And then when I died, would people remember me? And if they did, why would it matter to me? I'd be dead, I wouldn't care what people think.

"Um, Max?" Max II said.

"Sup?"

"We all _get_ that you're a cyborg now. You don't have to play 'the knife game'."

I looked down at my hand, spread out across a desk. The knife held in my other hand had gone a bit dull with all the enormous friction, and the desk itself was heavily marred. Shoot, I'd probably have to pay for that.

But my fingers? Not the slightest nick. I was _good_ at the knife game.

"I'm pondering my mortality, dude," I told Max II. "That's pretty stressy. This relaxes me."

"Hey, Tooey," Nudge said. "Ante up, dude!"

She smiled and returned to Gazzy and Nudge, with their new decks of cards and sets of poker chips on the big bed.

Once those punks cleared out, Fang and I were gonna have sex on that bed. Just so you know.

"Max, be careful with these two," I said. "They're a wizened pair of liars."

She paused, then looked up. "You talking to me?"

"Okay, you should know that I'm never, ever going to call you Tooey no matter what, so give up that dream right now. And Angel, no favoritism. Make it a clean game."

"Naturally," Angel said.

Fang was dividing our purchases among the group. "Hey, Iggy, you want the Spider-Man briefs?"

"No way, dude," Iggy said. "Iron Man."

Fang smirked with amusement, then took the entire package of Marvel Comics briefs and tossed them aside.

"Who the hell bought all the superhero underwear?" I demanded.

"Who do you think? Sean," Fang said. "The guy's got no clue how stupid he looks all the time."

Iggy chuckled. "You got that right, slick." He perked up suddenly. "Speaking of Sean, which room is he in?"

Fang frowned. "Imogen's right above us, and he's one over."

Iggy stood on the desk and pressed his ear against the corner between the wall and the ceiling. "Yeah, that's what I thought. He's got a girl in there."

I heard a ripping sound and turned my head. Max II was staring blankly ahead, and her hand of cards was completely crumbled in her clenched fists.

"Whoa," Nudge said. "Okay, new deck…"

"Sean has a _girl_… in his room?" Max II said through gritted teeth.

"For sure," Iggy said, dropping to the floor. "Nobody we know, but I guess whoever it is doesn't think he looks so stupid, huh?"

Fang spread his arms, as if in defeat. "Sean's a man-ho. Yeah, I saw that coming."

"Doesn't mean we have to put up with it," I pointed out. "Come on, girls, let's go kick his ass."

Nudge turned to me derisively. "Oh, I don't think that's necessary, Max. I'm sure any one of us could have a one-night stand in the blink of an eye if we wanted. Fame and freakiness does that. Not to mention how uber-gorgeous we all are. Hey Max! You know what we've never done? We've never had a contest for steamiest relationship, me and Iggy to you and Fang."

I stared at her. "Nudge, our _life_ is a steamiest-relationship contest. I think you won when you seduced Iggy while critically injured, in a jail cell, and you hadn't even hit puberty."

Nudge considered that for a beat. "Yeah, I had," she objected. She gently removed the ruined cards from Max II's hands. "You're gonna be fine, Tooey. You could do a lot better than Sean."

"What?" Max demanded. "Who said anything about me and Sean?"

"I think you said enough when you murdered our deck," Gazzy said.

"Yeah," Nudge said. "But listen, Iggy once told me something about letting little things slide… and I'm thinking that in our world, in our life, with the people we deal with, the little things are considerably bigger than what happens to normal people. What I'm saying is, we have to draw the line a lot higher up."

"Which isn't to say you have to set the bar low," Gazzy said.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Max II demanded.

Iggy patted the shoulders of Nudge, his true love, and Gazzy, his eternal best dude. "Listen to these guys," Iggy said. "You can learn a lot from them, 'cause, well, they know what they're talking about."

Fang nodded silently, then his eyes flickered to me.

Whoa, that did it.

"Everybody out," I said. "Get some sleep."

"What?" Gazzy demaded.

"Global crusaders need their rest. Now get out."


	31. Chapter 31

**Chapter 31**

Early the next morning, I sucked it up. I knew it had to be done. I knocked on the door.

Falon answered. "Gazzy," she said, surprised.

I could tell it was Falon because of the fresh burn scar that covered nearly her entire face. And I could tell because she invited me in kindly. I had figured out at this point that Falon was the nice one.

Falon and I sat down on her bed without a word. "So…" she muttered. "Whassup?"

"Where's Jax?" I asked.

"Swimming pool," Falon said. "But you can talk to me, you know."

"Yeah," I said. "I wanted to, anyway, I just thought… anyway. I wanted to apologize."

"Wha' for?" Falon demanded.

"Well, for… for my entire behavior, you know. I dwelled on it too much. Honestly, I wasn't _that_ scarred by it. So, I'm apologizing for not taking your apology… 'cause I _do_ forgive you."

"Dat's, um… well, dat's really big of you. More dan I could 'ave asked for…"

"Yeah, and tell Jax that, would you? 'Cause, well… anybody who defends a sibling the way she did can't possibly be a bad person." I smiled at Falon.

"Yeah," she agreed. "Jax is a good sister… no dou' abou' dat. As a person, well… I fink I ough' to explain, we've been lab rats until very recen'ly. Rebellion was really all we 'ad." She grinned. "You know why we're Cockney? Pure spite. Our whi'coats were so determined to ge' us frough all our experimens, dem wiff deir upper-crus', self-righ'eousness. We go' 'em, dough, in the end. You've no'iced, I'm sure."

"Yeah," I said. I laughed. "That's kind of a funny story."

"And, well, we never stopped breaking the rules, no' really," Falon continued. "And don' fink I'm putting all the responsibili'y on Jax, 'cause we were in it togever."

"It's okay, really," I said. "Like I said, I forgive both of you. I mean, I probably wouldn't have from the deed alone, but, you know… you apologized, and that's a hard thing to do. I think the reason I embraced it was because… well, it's a horrible thing that happened to me, but at least that actually happens to… you know, people. And so many things in my life are things that no one else could understand, but it just seemed so _normal_ to be…" I paused.

"Raped," Falon said. "We raped you. Okay? You don' 'ave to…"

"No, no you didn't," I insisted. "There's a word for it, but… no. 'Rape' wouldn't be accurate."

"Well, fanks. Dat makes me feel better."

We sat in silence for a moment. I was suddenly aware that she was in a bathrobe. She seemed to notice me noticing, and adjusted it.

"I see wha' you're saying," she said. "But, you know, I _can_ understand what you've been frough. A lo' of it 'appened to me, too."

"I know," I said. "I don't like to talk about it, though."

"Good. 'Cause I don' fink I even _could_." She sighed, then looked up at me. "You're a really grea' guy, Gaz."

"Well, you're not as bad as I thought, either."

Falon stared at me. "You fink we could make somefing 'appen? You and me?"

I leaned back in surprise. "Oh, Falon, no. I've forgiven you, don't think that entitles you to any privileges, okay?"

"But… but Gazzy… come on, please? It'd jus' be the two of us."

"Oh, well, good to know that's what you meant. That changes things."

"No, no," she said with a laugh. "I mean… not like from back when we firs' star'ed 'anging out. Somefing more like… like now. The real Gazzy, the real Falon. Nuffing else. No pretending or faking 'oo we are… jus' us. Can you hones'ly say you've ever 'ad dat before?"

I thought. "No," I admitted.

"Gazzy, talkin' to you righ' 'ere, righ' now, has given me dis passion dat I've never known before. I wan' you, Gazzy, and I wan' you in a real relationship wiv me."

I sighed. "I'd have to think about it."

She leaned in. "Gazzy… tell me somefing… if Jax 'ad made the same pitch to you, would you be finking abou' it?"

I looked up at her. "No," I said. "No, I'd say she was crazy. But you? That's something else entirely."

She leaned her head on my shoulder. "You, um… you wan' me to drop my robe?"

"What, here?" I said. "That's a bit cliché, isn't it?"

"I suppose," she admitted, stepping away.

I paused. "I said it was cliché, I didn't say don't do it."

She giggled and stood up, and the robe fell around her feet.

I instantly recoiled. The scar wasn't just on her face; it went straight down the middle of her chest, a slight slant down her belly and down the side of one leg. If I'd failed to pull her that far out of the way, she'd probably be completely incinerated…

"I'm so sorry," I whispered.

"Yeah," she said. "I'm no' an iden'ical twin anymore. Probably no' the bes' body you could be looking at, but I 'ope it doesn' cloud your desire to do dis."

"Not at all," I said. "This _is_ the best body there is, 'cause it's… well, it's the real Falon. And it's beautiful."

She bent down to kiss me, and I kissed her back. That really got her into it, and she smushed her face straight into mine. "Mmm," she said. "Damn good kiss."

"You taught me," I said.

"Mmm… yeah, I suppose I did. So… fresh star'?"

"Yeah," I said. "I want you."


	32. Chapter 32

**Chapter 32**

The hotel had a breakfast buffet, which I could seriously get down with. I was seriously starting to get into cuisine. Cuisine is my middle name. Maximum Cuisine Ride.

Okay, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it's true. Like I've said before, haute cuisine is enticing.

I sat at the buffet table with Fang and Airy. There were quite a few other people at the hotel's restaurant, and most of them turned to glance at us as often as possible, but none came too close.

"Who's keeping the fans off?" I wondered.

"There's been a moratorium," Fang replied. "The hotel sent out notices; no autographs, no talking, no touching."

"Oh," I said. "Well, good."

A few others filed in with their buffet trays; Angel, Max II, Sean, and Imogen. Our tables sure did get crowded now.

"I think the going-public plan is working," Angel said. She stiffened. "Oh… oh, good! I've been waiting…"

"What?" I said. I followed Angel's gaze to the entrance, where Gazzy was staggering into the restaurant, wearing the same outfit as he had been yesterday and soaking wet.

"What in the…?" Fang muttered.

Gazzy stopped at the head of our table and stooped over. "Best… shower… ever," he gasped.

"What the hell, Gaz?" I said.

I got my answer when Falon came sprinting in, wearing towels around her body and her head, jumped onto Gazzy's shoulders and started kissing him madly.

"Gazzy, you didn't," I said darkly.

"'E sure did," Falon assured me. "Mmm, 'e's so good to me… oi, Gaz, maybe nex' time you can actually take off some of your clothes."

"Yeah, I'll think about that," Gazzy wheezed.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said. "Hold up! What happened to 'she murdered you'? You can't just up and start a relationship with this bitch."

"Well, I'm gonna," Gazzy said.

"I don't approve, Gaz."

"Well, lah-dee-frickin'-dah, Max. I'm in love."

"Really?" Falon said. "Oh, me too! I love you, Gazzy!" She started pecking him on the nose rapidly. "Mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah, mwah!"

Gazzy laughed. "You're so tiny," he said. "You couldn't be five feet tall, and you weigh like fifteen pounds. I kept feeling like I was gonna break you."

"'Scuse me," Falon said, slapping him playfully. "I'm five-foo'-one, and I weigh sixty pounds. Is all in proportion for a mutan' of our kind!"

"Nah, you're short," Gazzy said.

"HEY!" I snapped. "Okay, I can buy that my estimates of her size were a little off—not important! Gazzy, sit down, we're gonna talk. Falon, get the hell out of here and get dressed."

Falon dropped out of Gazzy's arms and stared at me. "All righ'," she said. As she started to leave, Nudge and Iggy were walking by, holding their trays and snuggling together. "So," Falon asked them. "Is Max the governor of _all_ relationships in dis flock?"

"Little bit," Iggy said. "Why?"

"I am _not_!" I snapped. "Sit the hell down. Okay, Gazzy, I'm—"

"Max, ease up," Angel said. "Gaz? Falon's the one for you. I've known it for a while."

"Really?" Gazzy said excitedly. "Did you have a vision?"

"Nah," Angel said. "I've just been listening to the two of you, inside your heads, and… it became pretty clear." She stood up. "Hey, Falon!" she called.

Falon turned. "Yeah?"

"Don't let my brother get away! He's the one for you!"

Falon gave Angel an "OK". "I'm aware," she said, before leaving, presumably to get dressed in one of her slutty outfits.

"I'm _not_ happy about this, Gazzy," I said.

"Tough, 'cause I'm _very_ happy," Gazzy said.

I sighed, barely even noticing Jax slip in next to Gazzy, wearing a black bikini. "Wha'd I miss?" she said. "'Oo's the one for Fals?"

"I am," Gazzy replied.

Jax looked pleased, and I heard a rumbling sound.

"What was that?" I demanded. "Is that the Living Cell? Jax, are you wearing the Cell as a bikini?"

"No' my idea," Jax insisted.

"Oh, sure. Whose idea was it, then?"

I heard the Cell's distinctive bass chuckle.

"Oh, God, my flock are a bunch of perverts," I muttered.

"Pervert or not, I have a soulmate now," Gazzy said. "So… you know, if you think that's a problem, well, then… suck it. Thanks for the blessing, Angel. You're an awesome matchmaker."

"Aw, you're sweet," Angel said. "Speaking of which: Sean, Tooey is into you. Tooey, Sean's had eyes for you for a long time."

Sean and Max looked, shocked, at each other. "R… really?" Sean stammered. "I mean, I… I knew I liked ye, I didn't think ye'd actually…"

Max raised an eyebrow. "You like me? You had some bimbo in your room last night."

Imogen laughed. "Ach, don't read too much inta that. Sean's been prone to weakness ever since we began our work with the CSM. I for one don't think there's—oh, God, me nose."

She covered the lower half of her face with her hands before anybody could look at her.

"What's that, Immy?" I said.

"Me nose," Imogen said. "I swear I can feel meself turnin' inta a giant bat. Be honest with me, I've got a bat's nose, don't I?" She spread her hands.

"That's the same nose you've always had, Immy," I said.

"Okay… and that's good, right?"

"Um, yeah, I would say so," I said. "You have a perfect and beautiful nose that goes with everything else perfect and beautiful about you, which is everything about you, and that's why I hate you, you freakin' Mary Sue."

Imogen raised an eyebrow. "Mary Sue? Ye pop a rivet in yer robot brain? I'm Imogen."

"I'm sure you are," I said. "Anyway, we were talking about Sean being a disgusting piggish perv. Continue."

"I'm not," Sean insisted.

"Now, now," Imogen said, wrapping an arm around Sean's shoulders. "He's not intentionally a dog, me brother. It's just that the girls like him, and who could fault them for that, honestly? And when the girls like him, well, he's got t' like them back."

"Aye," Sean said, "I've been told that I've got the kind of charisma that the opposite sex prefers."

"That was a fortune cookie," Fang said. "That was my mother's fortune cookie, you made her trade with you."

"But I assure ye, Tooey," Imogen interrupted. "That Sean is _never_ the heartbreaker in these situations."

Max II raised an eyebrow. "Oh, reeeeeeeeally? And how do these situations go?"

"Well, like I said, me brother's weak, sensitive. Ye poke him in the belly, or squeeze his biceps, he's yours."

"Reeeeeeeeally?" Max said again. She reached for Sean.

"Get ye away!" Sean said, backing up.

"I'm kidding," Max said. "I wouldn't want to. I think we should date."

"Ye do?" Sean said. "Even though…?"

"Even though you're a wimpy little whore, yes, I want to date you. Feelings like this can't come arond so often, you know."

Sean nodded. "Aye," he whispered.

As Falon returned, I trained my cybernetic eye on her while my real eye went to Gazzy. "See, now, if someone's slept with someone else before, that's perfectly forgivable, but if a person sleeps with _you_ without your permission, you don't date them."

Gazzy stubbornly wrapped an arm around Falon. "Don't talk down to me, Max," he said. "Like it or not, I'm a man."

"Oh, I suppose she made a man out of you? That is so—"

"No, no, Max. I did it myself, a _long_ time ago."

I sighed. Yeah, he had. I wasn't gonna tell him that, though.

Well, naturally, our perfectly nice family breakfast was interrupted by—oh, what was it? Oh yeah, now I remember—it was the dramatic and destructive entrance of my dear, sweet mother the Director.


	33. Chapter 33

**Chapter 33**

Janssen entered the buffet room in an armored robot suit. Interesting! I'd never seen her in a combat situation before… yeah, I'd be willing to bet she wasn't very good at it. Oh, that's funny! She won't even go out into the field without her entire body being armored.

Her visor was semi-transparent, and I saw her eyes scanning my new cyborg bits. "Hello, Max," she said.

Ugh, what a bitch.

Clinging to Mommy's back was Kellie, who vaulted overhead and landed peacefully on the ground.

I felt a tragic yearning in my heart… what was it about that girl? Kellie was on completely the wrong side, maybe didn't even have free will. But how could you not love that face?

What, you don't think so? Okay, maybe I've been painting a bad picture, but honestly, if you looked past the red eyes, denticles, and migrating specks, Kellie was actually a very adorable young lady.

Then, there was the sourceless click-click-click that accompanied Kellie all the time. The people running in fear from the frightening mutant and armored CEO paused in confusion before returning to their panic.

"Kellie," I said. Gently, like I was talking to a dangerous animal… admittedly, I kind of was. "Kellie, you don't have to do this."

"Yes, you do, Kellie," Janssen replied. "Remember the clicks. The clicks will go away once you've brought Maximum Ride before Headmaster."

Kellie lunged for me, and I gently batted her away with my hands. "Kellie, please," I said. "You don't have to go down this road."

"Mommy says it's the best road," Kellie whispered.

Kellie flinched as more clicks went off.

"The clicks hurt, don't they?" I said. "Like… always. Right?"

Kellie nodded, rubbing her temples slowly.

"It's in her design," Janssen said proudly. "_My_ idea. Kellie's actions are carefully governed by the clicks."

"Kellie, do you realize it's not right for her to talk about you like that?" I said. "She's the one who makes your head hurt. That's _not_ a very good mommy."

Kellie's shiny black eyebrows creased, twitching spasmodically. Those clicks weren't even in _my_ head, but they still grated on my ears. I'd say the Voice is a lot better than the Clicks by a long shot…

"We've got some very smart people on our side, Kellie," I said. "I bet you anything we can get those clicks removed."

"She's an imbecile, Kellie," Janssen called. "There is no way to remove the clicks, unless you do what they say… or you die."

"I'm not going to let either of those things happen," I retorted. "Come here, Kellie. Join us. Be a member of the flock. Please?"

"You don't belong with these inferior beings!" Janssen snapped. "Now bring the mutants in for Mommy."

"It's okay," I whispered. "Kellie, take my hand. I'll show you a better life."

"Don't even touch her, Kellie. Fall back and regroup."

"Come closer," I said. "I love you, Kellie."

"Come _here_, my Unholy Assassin."

"That doesn't have to be your name. Join my family, please."

"Come here, Kellie."

"Come on, Kellie. It's okay."

"STOP TALKING!" Kellie shrieked, with enough force to shatter some of the glasses in the buffet room.

She looked from me to Janssen furiously, then stared at me, her teeth bared. "I'm not an animal!" she snapped.

I barely had enough time to register that piece of personal growth on her part, and be pleased—not to mention notice the highly not-pleased expression on Janssen's face—before Kellie leapt over my relaxed guard, perched herself on my shoulders, and snapped my neck.


	34. Chapter 34

**Chapter 34**

I felt the soft dewy grass under my bare feet. I opened my eyes… my two, normal eyes. I looked down at my arms, and they were back too.

And completely unscarred. Not just my arms, but everywhere. All my surgical scars, battle scars, everything, just… gone. I was in perfect health.

I wasn't wearing what I had been that morning. Jeans, a blouse, and a denim jacket. My favorite outfit of my entire lifetime, and I was wearing it.

I looked around. As far as I could see, there was the soothing wet grass that I felt under my feet. The sky was at its purest blue, no clouds… wait… there was no sun either. How could the sky be so blue when the sun wasn't anywhere?

I didn't pretend for a minute that I didn't know what was happening. 'Cause I knew. I'd tried to pacify a tool of the Survivors, and it had gotten me killed. I remembered my neck breaking, and I wasn't an idiot.

"Hey, Max."

I turned. Sitting in the grass was an eight-year-old boy with groomed blond hair. I had never seen this boy before, but I recognized him on sight.

"Ari Batchelder?" I muttered.

He nodded.

"But… but you've been dead five years."

"Yeah," he said. "Yeah, that's right. Although I've got to tell you, that five years has been a lot better than the five years _before_ it, put it that way."

I didn't know what to say to that. How do you talk to a dead person?

"Well, it's, um… it's good to see you, Ari," I said.

"You too," Ari said. "You've been doing a good job. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks," I said. "Um… I wish, sometimes, that I could have saved you. You deserve better."

"No, no," he said, waving his hand. "When… when you named your daughter after me, that was all the reward I needed. That's the best gift I've ever received. Why don't you come sit down?"

I walked over to him, and then something felt a little bit off. I'm not slow, I realize there's something off about hanging out in the afterlife with my dead brother, but walking over, I realized something. I felt very light… the same lightness I'd always had, for my entire life. And looking at the obviously human Ari, that didn't quite seem right.

As I sat down I flexed my shoulder muscles… yeah, there were my wings. "Ari?" I said.

"Yeah, Max."

"Why am I still a mutant and you're not?"

He smiled. "When we're here, we look the way we're supposed to."

"Uh… huh." I looked around. "Well, I guess I'll have to get used to this," I muttered. "I mean, it kind of sucks, but at least I've got you here, that's something."

"You're not dead, Max."

"I'm not? But… but Kellie…"

"Broke your neck, yeah." Ari smiled at me. "You honestly think that could kill you? Buster Keaton broke his neck once, and didn't even find out about it until the next time he went to the doctor… for mild neck pain. And you're a lot more durable than Buster Keaton, wouldn't you say?"

Well, okay, _that_ definitely put this as the weirdest moment I'd ever experienced. "Buster Keaton?" I said. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Maybe I should explain," Ari said. "Interesting thing about death and what happens to you afterwards. Your needs just sort of… go away. Obviously, there's no more need for food or rest, but more than that, you come to realize the superficiality of toys and possessions… and though you recognize the comforts and benefits of social contact, you don't _need_ it. No, the one thing we really need is knowledge. Learning. And when you're not bound by the laws of physics, well… that's when you can learn a lot. And I have."

"That sounds really cool," I said honestly.

"I'm not hyping it, Max," Ari said hastily. "Don't, um… don't go looking for this."

"'Cause I'm not dead."

"No, you are not."

We were silent for a moment.

"Then why am I here?" I asked.

"I needed to show you one of the things I've learned," Ari said. "Come with me."


	35. Chapter 35

**Chapter 35**

As I walked with Ari through the field, the scene shifted. It became a dusty landscape with a hot sun beating down on us, and when Ari abruptly stopped me, I realized we were standing right on the edge of a sheer cliff.

"Whoa," I said. "Hey, I know this place…"

My suspicions were confirmed when a huge number of hawks began to pour from the cliff, right beneath my feet. There were a lot of them… holy crap, there were a LOT. Way more than there had been when the flock had been here.

"What is this?" I wondered.

"Theoretically, it's the future," Ari said. "After your flock defeats the Survivors, the final boss in the game that is life, they execute their plan."

"Who's they?"

"You know… 'they'. And… here you are."

He was exactly right. There I was, swooping around the cliffs, leading the flock. It was a bit eerie, seeing myself, but I'd already figured that anything could happen here. The other me was cyborg-armed with the mismatched eyes, but with many many more scars than the real me had… and, yeah, I was a good deal older.

"How far in the future is this?" I asked.

"Seventeen years," Ari said. "You're thirty-five, and leading a completely new flock."

"A new flock? What?" I noticed, then, who the thirty-five-year-old was toting behind her. "Hey, yeah, that's not… who are they?"

"New mutants," Ari said. "Very high-tech, though none with quite your… prestige. Each of them made for the purpose of being _your_ flock."

"Where's _my_ flock?" I demanded. "My real flock! What's supposed to happen to them?"

"They're fine, the five of them," Ari assured me. "Each of them leads their own flock of these new guys, with very little contact between the flocks. This year that I'm showing you is one of the occasional get-togethers of the flock leaders."

I saw the mid-thirties Fang then, flying toward me flanked by his own crowd of bird-girls.

Yeah, all of them girls… Fang was the only guy in that flock. And most of his girls were holding one or two infants…

"My God," I said. "That's not a flock, that's a harem!"

Ari nodded. "Good call. That's part of Fang's design."

"But…" I stammered. "But…"

"You ever wonder, Max, about the way Airy was born?" Ari asked me. "Born barely three weeks after conception, fully developed even before you had a discernible baby-bump. By no means was that an unintentional part of your mutations; all the bird-girls are made that way. The purpose? Rapid continuation of the species."

"That's not right," I said. "I thought… why would Fang do that?"

"'Cause that's his role in the scheme of things. Look at _your_ flock, Max. Guys _and_ girls… they mix and match, don't ya know."

"So, in this future, planned by 'them', I've…?"

"Slept with all those guys? Oh yeah."

The only response I could manage was a throaty noise of disgust and derision.

"Yeah, I know," Ari said. "That's what they all need, though, at this period in history. These six flocks are all that remains of intelligent life on this planet."

I saw the entire gathering now. Iggy and Gazzy with their harems, Nudge and Angel with their flocks-o'-swingers…

I had to admit, though, all these thirty-something bird-kids looked very impressive. Like we were all great leaders… that was a part of this vision I kind of liked.

"_Six_ flocks?" I said. "But… there are more than six great leaders in my flock. Somebody must be making a mistake."

"There are only _supposed_ to be six of you," Ari said. "Only six who continue the gene."

"But what about Imogen's flock? What about Tooey?"

Ari chuckled. "Ah, Tooey. You know, she really was a pretty nice person. Really felt for you, always. I don't think I've ever been so proud of you as the moment when you let her into your flock. Anyway, she's not supposed to exist, if you're going by the 'them' model of the future. While I'm sure there's some debate on the subject, they end result is, they kill her."

"Of course they do. And Imogen?"

"Well, nobody _needs_ to kill them. Their purpose is to die in your service. They're fodder."

"My God."

I watched as the future versions of my flock came together and flew right over my head, landing in a circle at the top of the cliff. They exchanged some impersonal greetings…

"What about my daughter?"

"Hmm?" Ari said.

"My daughter! Ari, what happens to my daughter? Do they kill her too?"

"No," Ari said. "No, they don't kill Airy. They just sort of… send her on her way."

"But… but come on! She's a baby."

"You think she can't take care of herself? I assure you she can."

"Wait a minute, though," I said. "The Voice said once that Airy was just as vital as I am. Wouldn't 'they' know that?"

Ari scoffed. "The Voice. Hate that thing. I had it too."

"Really?" I said. "Did you, um… did you ever find out who it was, who was speaking?"

"Nobody, Max. It's just a piece of programming they put into the both of us. Useless heap of suck, that's what it was. Although in this case, yeah, it might have had something right. When Airy returns and confronts you, the outcome of that battle is, yeah, pretty vital."

"Battle?" I demanded. "I can't fight my own daughter!"

"But you do, Max," Ari said. "That's the way it goes. Whether or not you fight your daughter has staggering implications for the future of humanity."

"Humanity?" I sneered. I stormed into the middle of that little "council of six". "Get real! Look at this! This isn't humanity. This isn't _my flock_! Look at them all, these aren't my shining stars, my loves, my babies. They have no passion for what they're doing, no true goals, they're… they're… they're nothing. They're not human anymore."

Ari nodded. "Good call, Max. _Very_ good call. You've put your finger on what 'they' overlooked."

"So, they have it wrong then," I said. "The Survivors aren't my final enemy. I have to fight this future."

Ari nodded and reached for my hand… my cybernetic hand, which I could see with startling clarity out of my right eye. I was the current "me" once again.

"You fight this future, Max," he said. "Fight it with all your might… which, as we both know, is a lot of might. And me… I'll be giving you all the support I can. Keep an eye out for this world. _Never_ let it come to pass, whatever you do."

"I promise," I said. "I'll take care of this. Thank you, Ari. I guess I never really told you, before you died, but…"

"Nah, I knew," he interrupted. "Even then."

"Yeah, okay," I said. "Good." I sighed. "Goodbye, Ari. I'll miss you."

He smiled. "I'll be waiting for you. Take your time. Time for you to get going, I think."


	36. Chapter 36

**Chapter 36**

The woman opened her front door, greeted by a young man with short blond hair, standing in front of a wooden crate nearly as tall as he was.

"Mrs. Beck?" the boy said.

"Um… yes. Who are you?"

"My name's Niles," he said. "I have a surprise delivery for you."

The box opened, and Mrs. Beck gasped. Standing there was her daughter, missing for four years.

"Hi, Chrissie," Keegan said, smiling weakly. "I'm… I'm so sorry I ran away. I didn't mean to… to forget…"

Mrs. Beck could barely speak through the lump in her throat. "M… Monte!" she called hoarsely. "Monte, come quick!"

Niles rubbed Keegan's shoulders. "Go on," he whispered.

Keegan hugged her mother. "I'm so sorry," she said, tears streaming down her face. "I'm so, so, so sorry, I can't say it enough…"

"That's my girl," Niles whispered.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Brigid slumped onto a stone bench in front of the hotel. Dr. Martinez and Dr. Akana were tending to the damages that Janssen and Kellie had caused the hotel.

She saw Fang tending to the unconscious, spasming Max. Brigid loved Fang so much. For as long as she'd desired him, she'd loved him longer. What a joy to finally be traveling with him! It was all she ever wanted, almost. Fang had established a father-daughter connection between the two of them, which made Brigid feel…

"Hey, Pudding," said a gravelly voice.

Brigid looked up in alarm. There was an old man with a great big bushy beard and long blond hair.

"Who are you?" Brigid demanded. She looked around… no one to defend her. For all her flip-flopping from one allegiance to another, Brigid had never fought somebody in her life.

"We haven't met, but I believe you knew my two sons and my brother. I'm Sand."

"Sand Valducci?" Brigid said.

"Yeah, that's right. I came here to talk to you about—"

"No!" Brigid said, standing up. "Not happening! I'm not gonna be a bad guy anymore. I don't care what you do to me."

"Don't be silly," Sand said. "What makes you think we're bad guys?"

"That's what they all say! I'm not going near your organization, Valducci, not for any reason AT ALL. I belong with Fang—with the flock."

Sand laughed. "What a coincidence! Fang and the flock belong with _us_."

"Who's us?"

"You know… 'us'."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

I came back into my body, and tried turning my head.

"Max?"

I tried to sit up. I withdrew my claws, rubbing my head with the blunt ends of my fingers.

"Are you okay, Max?"

Fang. The dude with the harem… no. The dude who loved me and had my back. My husband-dude.

"Fang," I said. "Where's Kellie?"

"She left with the Director," Fang said. "I'm sorry, Max… but you did all you could. We'll get her, Max. I promise." He kissed me tenderly.

"I hope so," I said. "I miss her…"

Fang smiled crookedly. "Hey, babe, I can't see anybody being able to resist the kind of love you show. Oh, Max, have you met my mother?"

He indicated his laptop. On the screen was an image of Isobel Rush in her apartment.

"Hi, Max," she said. "Um, big-time follower."

"Hey there," I said. I turned to Fang. "Has she seen _my_ mom? Any in-law tension there?"

"The in-law tension is just fine," Fang assured me.

"Um, Fang?" Isobel said. "Could I ask you a favor, privately?"

"The flock doesn't have secrets, Ma," Fang said. "Any favor you want, we'll handle it together."

"Please, it's… it's about family."

Fang stared down at his mother's image on the screen. Finally, he picked up the laptop and stepped away.

I tried standing up. "Jalapeña, my neck hurts…"

I heard a distinct laugh behind me. Like mine, but unlike mine at the same time.

"Yeah, thought Tooey would appreciate that one," I said.

I turned to my clone, who stopped laughing and looked alarmed. "You called me Tooey! You said you never would."

"Did I?" I said. "Well, that was my bad. You should have your own identity, just as much as anybody else here."

I saw Angel's head tilt as she looked me over.

"You were dead for a moment there," Angel said. "What did you see?"

I smiled at her. "Don't you know?"

Angel frowned. "I… no. What happened to you? I can read your mind normally, but when you think of that time, it just goes blank…"

So, for the first time ever, I could keep a total secret? Ari must have meant for that. I decided not to speak of it, then. I didn't need Angel and everybody else frightened about a future that I would _not_ let happen.

"Hi, Mommy," said a small voice.

Airy fluttered over to me, and I scooped her up. I didn't see her any differently. "They" were wrong. About everything.

"Who's ready to fly?" I asked.

Eleven hands went up. It was time.

**to be continued…**

**Okay, maybe not to be continued. I'm gonna try, though. First, I'm gonna poke around the Maximum Ride fanfiction archives and communities, do a little bit of advertising! Hopefully, get some big time uppage on my reviews. 'Cause, come on, I know this stuff isn't **_**total**_** malarkey. If I can just find somebody who has the time for it, I know I'll get what's comin' to me. Which could be flames, I don't know.**


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